Production of low axial energy spread ion beams with multicusp sources

Abstract

Multicusp ion sources are capable of producing ions with low axial energy spread which are necessary in applications such as: ion projection lithography (IPL) and focused ion beams for the next generation lithographic tools and nuclear science experiments such as radioactive ion beam production. The axial ion energy spread for multicusp source is approximately 6 eV which is too large for IPL and radioactive ion beam applications. The addition of a magnetic filter which consists of a pair of permanent magnets to the multicusp source reduces the energy spread considerably. The reduction is due to the improvement in the uniformity of the axial plasma potential distribution in the discharge region. Axial ion energy spread of the filament driven ion source has been measured using three different techniques. In all cases, it was found to be less than 2 eV. Energy spread of the radio frequency (RF) driven source has also been explored, and it was found to be less than 3 eV with the proper RF-shielding. A new multicusp source configuration has been designed and constructed to further reduce the energy spread. To achieve a more uniform axial plasma potential distribution, a cylindrical magnetic filter has been designed and constructed for a 2-cm-diameter source. This new source configuration, the co-axial source, is new in its kind. The energy spread in this source has been measured to be a record low of 0.6 eV. Because of the novelty of this device, some plasma parameters inside the source have been studied. Langmuir probe has been used to measure the plasma potential, the electron temperature and the density distribution.