Intense, Finely-focused ion beams would find many applications in research and production if sufficiently bright ion sources could be made. The proposed research is an investigation of the feasibility of a concept for an extremely bright ion source wherein an intense supersonic molecular beam is ionized and ions are carefully extracted from a synthetic plasma. The topics to be investigated are the possible compositions of the molecular beam for producing desired ions, the relative merits of ionization by photon, electron, and ion impact, the behavior ot' the synthetic plasma, and the design ol'an improved extraction lens. The ion source could be used in commercial ion beam instruments both lor the microanalysis and the niicrol'abrication of surfaces. In particular, the ion source would contribute greatly to i-naking ion beam lithography with focused beams a practical technique.The potential commercial application as described by the aw@irdce: Research will lead to the development of ion beam lithography and implantation, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, and microscopy micromachining.
