A Lithium Liquid Metal Ion Source with a Sealed-Cone-Type Reservoir

A sealed-cone-type liquid metal ion source (LMIS) suitable for lithium has been designed. It consists of a conical metal reservoir, a ceramic lid atop the reservoir covering the ion material, a tungsten filament, and a tungsten-needle emitter. The sealed-cone-type LMIS has good efficiency in heating and any contamination of the ion source due to the deposition of the source material is minimal. The chemical reaction of Li 2 CrO 4 with Si was used to produce the Li liquid metal ion because it does so more easily than the heating of the Li metal does. The use of the Li primary ion in the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis increased the yield of negative ions, which is similar to the case of the Cs primary ion. The use of light lithium ions improves beam focusing, which in turn increases the sensitivity of element analysis and ion imaging of a microarea.