title: Scanning ion microscopy with low energy lithium ions.
abstract: Using an ion source based on photoionization of laser-cooled lithium atoms, we have developed a scanning ion microscope with probe sizes of a few tens of nanometers and beam energies from 500eV to 5keV. These beam energies are much lower than the typical operating energies of the helium ion microscope or gallium focused ion beam systems. We demonstrate how low energy can be advantageous in ion microscopy when detecting backscattered ions, due to a decreased interaction volume and the potential for surface sensitive composition analysis. As an example application that demonstrates these advantages, we non-destructively image the removal of a thin residual resist layer during plasma etching in a nano-imprint lithography process.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA; Maryland NanoCenter, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Twedt
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA. Electronic address: jabez.mcclelland@nist.gov.
authors.forename: Jabez J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: McClelland
keywords: Ion scattering; Laser-cooling; Nano-imprint lithography; Scanning microscopy