What is the Gas Cluster Ion Beam
Gas Cluster Ion Beam (GCIB) technology¹⁾ is a Japanese-originated advanced technology developed at Kyoto University. GCIB is an ion beam formed from several thousand gas atoms (molecules) such as argon, achieving ion beam etching with extremely low energy per atom — something that could not be achieved with conventional ion beam technology — as well as surface planarization after etching²⁾.
Cluster ions have long been used in surface analysis techniques such as XPS and TOF-SIMS⁷⁾. Among cluster ions, C60 ions in particular are capable of surface cleaning and low-damage sputter etching for many polymers and organic materials, and have been incorporated into numerous commercial analytical instruments, with several tens of units now in practical use for surface analysis worldwide. Ar gas cluster ion beams show almost no chemical changes derived from the irradiated ions on the etched surface, achieving ultra-low energy ion etching at approximately 1 to 20 eV per atom — something that cannot be achieved with C60 — enabling low-damage, high-depth-resolution etching.
Figure 3 shows the exterior of the released instrument. The compact GCIB instrument for surface analysis was jointly developed by ULVAC, Inc. and ULVAC-PHI, Inc.³⁻⁶⁾
References
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- 松尾二郎、瀬木利夫、青木学聡：表面科学、31 [11] 564 (2010).
- アルバック・ファイ株式会社、株式会社アルバック：新聞発表(2008年12月24日).
- 国部利寿：アルバックテクニカルジャーナル、59, 1(2003).
- 国部利寿：アルバックテクニカルジャーナル、64, 1(2006).
- 間宮一敏：アルバックテクニカルジャーナル、71, 1(2009).
- 眞田則明：J. Surf. Anal., 14 [3], 204(2008).