2D calculation of parasitic fields in misaligned multipole electron-optical systems.

The effects of geometrical imperfections in electron-optical components are usually evaluated in 3D simulations. These calculations inherently take a long time, require a large amount of memory, and do not directly produce the necessary axial field functions. We present a 2D perturbation method to calculate parasitic fields in misaligned multipole systems.

Accurate interpolation of 3D fields in charged particle optics.

Standard 3D interpolation polynomials often suffer from numerical errors of the calculated field and lack of node points in the 3D solution. We introduce a novel method for accurate and smooth interpolation of arbitrary electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of the optical axis valid up to 90% of the bore radius. Our method combines Fourier analysis and Gaussian wavelet interpolation and provides the axial multipole field functions and their derivatives analytically.

Optimization of ion-atomic beam source for deposition of GaN ultrathin films.

We describe the optimization and application of an ion-atomic beam source for ion-beam-assisted deposition of ultrathin films in ultrahigh vacuum. The device combines an effusion cell and electron-impact ion beam source to produce ultra-low energy (20-200 eV) ion beams and thermal atomic beams simultaneously. The source was equipped with a focusing system of electrostatic electrodes increasing the maximum nitrogen ion current density in the beam of a diameter of ≈15 mm by one order of magnitude (j ≈ 1000 nA/cm(2)).

Guided assembly of gold colloidal nanoparticles on silicon substrates prepatterned by charged particle beams.

Colloidal gold nanoparticles represent technological building blocks which are easy to fabricate while keeping full control of their shape and dimensions. Here, we report on a simple two-step maskless process to assemble gold nanoparticles from a water colloidal solution at specific sites of a silicon surface. First, the silicon substrate covered by native oxide is exposed to a charged particle beam (ions or electrons) and then immersed in a HF-modified solution of colloidal nanoparticles.

An ultra-low energy (30-200 eV) ion-atomic beam source for ion-beam-assisted deposition in ultrahigh vacuum.

The paper describes the design and construction of an ion-atomic beam source with an optimized generation of ions for ion-beam-assisted deposition under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. The source combines an effusion cell and an electron impact ion source and produces ion beams with ultra-low energies in the range from 30 eV to 200 eV. Decreasing ion beam energy to hyperthermal values (≈10(1) eV) without loosing optimum ionization conditions has been mainly achieved by the incorporation of an ionization chamber with a grid transparent enough for electron and ion beams.