Ultracold ion beams using laser cooling

Focused ion beam instruments a"re indispensable tools for the semiconductor industry due to their ability to image and modify structures on the nanometer length scale. For milling and deposition, the industry standard is the gallium liquid-metal ion source which enables a resorution of 5-10 nm at a current of a few pA. with the quest towards smaller features on integrated circuits, there is a need for novel ion sources that allow for better resolution. Several research groups are working towards applying laser-intensified alkali-metal ion beams for this purpose [1]. s-uch ultra-low temperature (1 mK) ion beams can be created by lasercooling and photo-ionization of a thermal atomic beam or vapor. The Rb ion source under development in Eindhoven in collaboration with FEI c