Investigations into the wear of a WL10 ion source

WL10 is an alloy of tungsten and 1% La2O3. It combines the advantages of pure tungsten, such as chemical resistance and the high melting point, with a significantly improved machinability. Unlike molybdenum, tungsten and lanthanum show no mass interferences for BF2 implants. In this paper, the wear of a WL10 ion source during operation with BF3 and argon in a Varian 350 D medium current implanter is studied and compared to the wear of a molybdenum and a graphite ion source, respectively. Considering the weight loss and the broadening of the extraction slit, the WL10 ion source showed a slightly better wear behavior than the molybdenum ion source. The wear of the graphite ion source was only slightly higher than that of the WL10 and the molybdenum ion source. However, since graphite showed the strongest reactions during BF3 operation, it is difficult to compare the results