We will present an overview of Sandia’s Ion Beam Laboratory (IBL) and its ongoing efforts to develop focused ion implantation capability using a range of accelerators. The IBL operates seven focused ion beam (FIB) systems that range in ion energy from less than 1 keV to greater than 70 MeV, including a wide range of ion species from protons (H) to lead (Pb) over a range of spot sizes from nm to m.  This presentation will cover three topics: 

(1) Novel liquid metal alloy ion source development (LMAIS) where we will concentrate on the development of LMAIS for our two mass filtered FIB systems, the A&D nanoImplanter (A&D FIB100NI) and the Raith Velion, both of which include high spatial resolution with CAD based patterning to enable the formation of arbitrary patterned implantation in a wide range of substrates. 

(2) In-situ counting and in-situ photoluminescence (PL) to enable single defect center creation in wide bandgap materials such as diamond and silicon carbide.  Using counting we demonstrate a seven-fold improvement on the expected ion implantation error over timed implantation.  Using PL we enable real-time error correction on the formation of low yield optically active defect centers.  The combination of counting and PL is a promising pathway towards deterministic formation of these defect centers.

(3) The development of ultra-low energy (<<1 keV) focused ion implantation capability based on a biased sample holder configuration. This enables ultra-low energy implantation while maintaining an expected implantation resolution of between 100-300 nm.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.