Towards liquid metal ion source chips: Indium liquid metal ion source with glass microcapillaries

摘要

A liquid-metal-ion-source with indium propellant using an uncoated fused quartz glass microcapillary was manufactured and tested. The extremely thin capillary enabled a very low ignition voltage of 1000 V and a high electrical impedance ideal for clustering. However, low bonding forces between indium and glass resulted in a rather short lifetime of little more than 10 min. The use of pure glass as emitter material may enable liquid ion source chips with high current densities in the future.