A liquid metal ion source in a high energy microprobe setup

We describe first experiments with a new arrangement of the Bochum superconducting solenoid microprobe using a single ended electrostatic accelerator and the implementation of a high brightness Ga liquid metal ion source. In this setup the accelerator and the microprobe components are mounted on a common optical bench which is mechanically decoupled from the laboratory building via a separate basement. Care had to be taken of the ion optical adaptation of the source to the accelerator tube in order to preserve the source brightness in the entire experimental setup. The emittance characteristic of the Ga ion beam was determined directly at the location of the microprobe via automatic emittance scanning using the computer controlled slit system of the setup. By this means the parameters of the unfocused beam could be measured for both the accelerated case (315 keV) and the unaccelerated case (30 keV). It could be shown that the observed brightness of the source behind the extraction optics is about three orders of magnitude less than values quoted in the literature (similar to 10(6) A m(-2) rad(-2) eV(-1)) which were deduced from the virtual source size and the angular current density of the ion beam at the source tip. The parameters of the focused beam are presented. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.