title: The prospects of a subnanometer focused neon ion beam.
abstract: The success of the helium ion microscope has encouraged extensions of this technology to produce beams of other ion species. A review of the various candidate ion beams and their technical prospects suggest that a neon beam might be the most readily achieved. Such a neon beam would provide a sputtering yield that exceeds helium by an order of magnitude while still offering a theoretical probe size less than 1-nm. This article outlines the motivation for a neon gas field ion source, the expected performance through simulations, and provides an update of our experimental progress.
authors.affiliation: Carl Zeiss NTS, Peabody, Massachusetts 01960, USA.
authors.forename: F H M
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: Shawn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McVey
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Farkas
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Notte
authors.forename: Shida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Richard H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Livengood
mesh_terms: D007477:Ions; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D009356:Neon; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D007477:Ions; D009356:Neon