Review of Cluster Ion Beam Facilities and Technology

The paper reviews the development of cluster ion beam technology, including historical background, fundamental characteristics of cluster ion to solid surface interactions, emerging industrial applications, and identification of some of the significant events which occurred as the technology has evolved into what it is today. Processes employing ions of clusters comprised of a few hundred to many thousand atoms are now being developed into a new field of ion beam technology. Cluster-surface collisions produce important non-linear effects which are being applied to shallow junction formation, to etching and smoothing of semiconductors, metals, and dielectrics, to assisted formation of thin films with nano-scale accuracy, and to other surface modification applications.