Utilisation of a sputtering device for targetry and diffusion studies P. Laitinen a,b, * , M. Nevala a , A. Pirojenko a , K. Ranttila a , R. Seppa ¨la ¨ a , I. Riihima ¨ki a ,J.Ra ¨isa ¨nen b , A. Virtanen a a Department of Physics, University of Jyva ¨skyla ¨, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40014 Jyva ¨skyla ¨,Finland b Accelerator Laboratory, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 43, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland Received 22 December 2003; received in revised form 17 June 2004 Abstract A novel device for versatile sputtering applications is described. The apparatus design is realised for fulfilling the demandsofbothnuclearphysicsexperimenttargetproductionandserialsectioninginsolid-statediffusionstudieswith radiotracers. Results of several tests are reported, characterising the devise performance in these two differing applications. Ó 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V. PACS: 29.25.t; 81.15.z; 81.65 Keywords: Sputtering; Target fabrication; Serial sectioning 1. Introduction There are various tasks for which ion beam sputtering provides a useful tool. Most often such sputtering devices are optimised to perform a cer- tain task without any ambiguous use. At the DepartmentofPhysicsoftheJyva ¨skyla ¨ University (JYFL)wehavechosenadifferentapproach,since there was an apparent twofold need for a sputter- ingdevice.Namely,fornuclearphysicsexperiment target fabrication and for serial sectioning used in solid-state diffusion studies by radiotracers. The device functional parameter requirements in these applications are very different. For targetry spatially homogenous pure thin filmsarerequiredcoupledwithlowtargetmaterial consumption.Themostefficientwaytorealisethis is to use focused ion beam sputtering, as was used by Sletten and Knudsen [1] for the first time. For sputtering based serial sectioning a broad, inten- sive low energy ion beam is required. This ensures 0168-583X/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2004.06.027 * Corresponding author. Address: Accelerator Laboratory, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 43, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland. Tel.: +358 9 191 50084; fax: +358 9 191 50042. E-mail address: pauli.laitinen@helsinki.fi (P. Laitinen). Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 226 (2004) 441–446 www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb