Invited Paper CA+NS+SS+VT-ThA1
Helium and Neon Ion Beams for the Imaging and Analysis of Interfaces

Thursday, October 24, 2019, 2:20 pm, Room A120-121

The recently developed ORION NanoFab instrument provides a single platform with He⁺, Ne⁺, and Ga⁺ focused ion beams. The gallium beam is a conventional FIB and offers high currents and high sputter yields for material removal applications such as sample preparation or exposing sub-surface features. The He and Ne ion beams originate from a sub-nanometer ionization volume of the gas field ion source (GFIS) and because of this, can be focused to remarkable small probe sizes, 0.5 nm and 1.9 nm respectively. The He beam is now well established for high resolution imaging with surface sensitivity, long depth of focus, and the ability to image insulating surfaces without a conductive overcoating. The helium beam has also been used successfully in a variety of nanofabrication tasks such as lithographic exposure of resist, fine sputtering, beam chemistry, and precision modification of materials. The neon beam with its intermediate mass provides a higher sputtering yield, and with that, the ability to perform SIMS analysis with an unprecedented small focused probe size. A newly integrated magnetic spectrometer enables analytical capabilities on this same platform, with a lateral resolution limited only by the collision cascade. Features smaller than 15 nm have been detected. Together these complementary imaging modes can be combined to provide insights of morphology and composition at the smallest length scales.

In this talk the underlying technology of the NanoFab-SIMS will be introduced, as will the physics of the beam-sample interactions. The bulk of the presentation will provide a survey of results, both published and new, demonstrating how this instrument can serve in a variety of applications related to interfaces.