ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF FAST ATOM BEAM PRODUCED BY AN FAB SOURCE.

Fast atom beam (FAB) techniques for sputter deposition, etching and analysis can be easily applied to insulators and composite materials because charging of the surface on target materials is not a serious problem in the process. On the other hand, in order to achieve high speed in material processing, it is necessary to obtain a high-power FAB source. In particular, the beam current, beam neutralization coefficient and energy distribution are important parameters for realizing this aim. In this paper, the authors report on the results of the energy distribution among the various characteristics of an FAB source and consider the possible mechanisms for the formation of energetic neutrals.