A scanning tunneling miscrocope facility will be developed with the emphasis on a versatile instrument design which can be utilized in a variety of applications. In the first year of this project instrument design, construction and automation will be emphasized. The instrument will be constructed so as to operate in air or vacuum, to assure versatility of application. The initial application to be studied is surface profilometry of precision machined surfaces. Concurrently with the STM development, a focused ion beam system utilizing a liquid-metal source of submicron spot size will be developed. Applications of this system to materials analysis and modification include: 1) scanning ion microscopy utilizing secondary electrons generated by the focused ion beam; 2) ion beam micromachining of surfaces; 3) localized ion implantation for semiconductor device fabrication and 4) fundamentals of focused ion beam/specimen interactions for the energy range 1-25 keV will be investigated. A long term objective of this program (beyond the first year) will be to combine the Focused Ion Beam System with an in-situ STM for beam surface interaction studies. This is a Presidential Young Investigator Award for 1987.
