The Prospects of a Subnanometer Focused Neon Ion Beam

Abstract

The success of the helium ion microscope has encouraged extensions of this technology to produce beams of other ion species. A review of the various candidate ion beams and their technical prospects suggest that a neon beam might be the most readily achieved. Such a neon beam would provide a sputtering yield that exceeds helium by an order of magnitude while still offering a theoretical probe size less than 1-nm. This article outlines the motivation for a neon gas field ion source, the expected performance through simulations, and provides an update of our experimental progress.

Helium ion microscopy

“…The availability of different gases for GFIS-such as neon 104,105 -and the combination with a classic liquid metal gallium FIB 106,107 makes the technique interesting for various types of materials modifications. The fine beam produced by the GFIS has the potential to engineer structures with a length scale that is well below what is currently possible with LMIS based FIB techniques.…”

Precise nanofabrication with multiple ion beams for advanced circuit edit

“…A Ne ion beam also has a very small probe size, but a much faster material removal rate than a He ion beam. Previous reports related to Ne ion beams focused on the beam stability [7] and ion beam damage [8]. But few have studied the milling resolution of a Ne ion beam.…”

Magnonic Band Engineering by Intrinsic and Extrinsic Mirror Symmetry Breaking in Antidot Spin-Wave Waveguides

“…However, with the recent advances in fabrication techniques, it has become feasible to pattern with resolution below 10 nm. For example, the spot size during focused ion beam lithography can go below 10 nm with low (≈30 pA) ion current1430313233. To predict properties of magnonic devices at nanometer length scale, more basic research needs to be conducted.…”