Multicathode sputter ion sources: general review and a report on the ion source developed at Nuclear Science Centre

In the early sputter source designs of the seventies, providing multiple sample provisions was not a difficult task due to the fact that, in these designs, not much attention was paid to focussing the cesium ion beam on to the sputter target. However, with the advent of the high intensity sources of the eighties, the importance of special ionizer geometries and improved cesium ion focussing was realised. In such designs, the incorporation of multicathode provisions became a non-trivial task. This paper reviews the early multi-sample sources, the later high intensity sources and the difficulty in incorporating a multicathode wheel in them and the more recent designs of multicathode high intensity sources. Finally, a brief report on the design and preliminary test results of the multicathode source developed at Nuclear Science Centre is given. (author). 14 refs., 5 figs