MULTICATHODE SPUTTER ION SOURCES - GENERAL-REVIEW AND A REPORT ON THEION-SOURCE DEVELOPED AT NUCLEAR-SCIENCE CENTER

In the early sputter source designs of the seventies, providing multip le sample; provisions was not a difficult task due to the fact that, i n these designs, not much attention was paid to focussing the cesium i on beam on to the sputter target. However, with the advent of the ''hi gh intensity'' sources of the eighties, the Importance of special ioni zer geometries and improved cesium-ion focussing was realised. Pn such designs, the incorporation of multicathode provisions became a non-tr ivial task, This paper reviews tile early multi-sample sources, the la ter ''high intensity'' sources and the difficulty in incorporating a m ulticathode wheel in them and the more recent designs of ''multicathod e high intensity sources''. Finally, a brief report on the design and preliminary test results of the multicathode source developed at Nucle ar Science Centre is given.