High-brightness Cs focused ion beam from a cold-atomic-beam ion source.

We present measurements of focal spot size and brightness in a focused ion beam system utilizing a laser-cooled atomic beam source of Cs ions. Spot sizes as small as (2.1 ± 0.2) nm (one standard deviation) and reduced brightness values as high as (2.4 ± 0.1) × 107 A m-2 Sr-1 eV-1 are observed with a 10 keV beam. This measured brightness is over 24 times higher than the highest brightness observed in a Ga liquid metal ion source. The behavior of brightness as a function of beam current and the dependence of effective source temperature on ionization energy are examined. The performance is seen to be consistent with earlier predictions. Demonstration of this source with very high brightness, producing a heavy ionic species such as Cs+, promises to allow significant improvements in resolution and throughput for such applications as next-generation circuit edit and nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry.

Bright focused ion beam sources based on laser-cooled atoms.

Nanoscale focused ion beams (FIBs) represent one of the most useful tools in nanotechnology, enabling nanofabrication via milling and gas-assisted deposition, microscopy and microanalysis, and selective, spatially resolved doping of materials. Recently, a new type of FIB source has emerged, which uses ionization of laser cooled neutral atoms to produce the ion beam. The extremely cold temperatures attainable with laser cooling (in the range of 100 µK or below) result in a beam of ions with a very small transverse velocity distribution. This corresponds to a source with extremely high brightness that rivals or may even exceed the brightness of the industry standard Ga+ liquid metal ion source. In this review we discuss the context of ion beam technology in which these new ion sources can play a role, their principles of operation, and some examples of recent demonstrations. The field is relatively new, so only a few applications have been demonstrated, most notably low energy ion microscopy with Li ions. Nevertheless, a number of promising new approaches have been proposed and/or demonstrated, suggesting that a rapid evolution of this type of source is likely in the near future.

Multiply charged thorium crystals for nuclear laser spectroscopy.

We have produced laser-cooled crystals of 232Th3+ in a linear rf Paul trap. This is the first time that a multiply charged ion has been laser cooled. Our work opens an avenue for excitation of the nuclear transition in a trapped, cold 229Th3+ ion. Laser excitation of nuclear states would establish a new bridge between atomic and nuclear physics, with the promise of new levels of metrological precision.