FOCUSED ION-BEAM TECHNOLOGY

Focused ion beam (FIB) technology has the advantage of being a maskless process compatible with UHV processing. This makes it attractive for use in in situ processing and has been applied to the fabrication of various mesoscopic structures. The present paper reviews these results whilst putting emphasis on in situ processing by a combined FIB and molecular beam epitaxy system. The typical performance of present FIB systems is also presented. In order to utilize the potential advantages of FIB processing, reduction of damage and improvement of throughput are important, and much effort has been devoted to developing processing techniques which require a reduced dose. The importance of low-energy FIB is discussed.