Characteristics of the liquid metal ion source with a suppressor and its advantages

The liquid metal ion sources (LMIS) in FIB system have many advantages of high current density, high brightness and low ion energy spread. Most FIB systems use LMIS because the ion beam spot size of LMIS is smaller than of gas field ionization sources (GFIS). LMIS basically consists of an emitter (needle, anode), a reservoir (gallium) and an extractor (cathode). But several LMIS have new electrode called the suppressor.