High Brightness Sources for MeV Microprobe Applications

State of the art MeV ion microprobe facilities are now approaching current density limitations on targets imposed by the fundamental nature of conventional gaseous ion sources. With a view to addressing this problem efforts are under way which have the ultimate objective of developing high brightness Li liquid metal ion sources suitable for MeV ion microprobe applications. Prototype Li exp + and Ga exp + liquid metal ion sources have been designed, fabricated and are undergoing preliminary testing. This paper describes the first total emittance and brightness measurements of a Ga liquid metal ion source. The effect of the geometry of the ion extraction system is investigated and the brightness data are compared to those of a radio frequency ion source. 11 ref.--AA