A HYDRODYNAMICAL STUDY OF THE INSTABILITY OF A PLANAR LIQUID METAL ION SOURCE (SUMMARY)

Liquid metal ion sources (LMIS) are of interest in diverse areas of technology since they provide a high brightness, quasi-point source of ions for high resolution ion beam lithography, microfabrication, surface analysis and other potential applications[l]. The technical difficulties of building and operating stable sources have been largely overcome. The basic physics of source operation and ion formation is, however, still incompletely understood. Krohn and Ringo first described the fundamental processes of ion emission from liquid metal tips in a strong electric field[2]. Subsequently, Gomer[3] and others[4-8] analyzed the mechanism of LMIS and developed theoretical models to explain the shape and size of the ion emitting region