Development of a new ion-beam sputtering apparatus and its application for scanning electron microscopy.

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An ion beam sputter coater for high resolution scanning electron microscopy was newly developed. It is equipped with a specimen chamber (an ion beam gun, a specimen stage, metal targets and a thickness monitor), control units and a vacuum system. With this apparatus, very thin metal film which is composed of fine platinum particles of about 15-20 A in diameter was obtained. The size of the particles is much smaller than that obtained by ordinary ion sputter coater (50-60 A in diameter). Tantalum and tungsten can be also used as coating metals. On observation with an ultra high resolution scanning electron microscope, the specimens which had been thinly coated by the new coater provided enough conductivity and yield of secondary electrons for taking pictures in good contrast. Thus the newly developed ion beam sputter coater have very high ability in compare with the ordinary ion sputter coater and it exercises its power at ultra high resolution scanning electron microscopy. In the future, this apparatus surely become a necessary in this research field.