Integrated all-electric high energy ion beam guidance on chip: Towards miniature particle accelerator

Pathways to wafer and chip-scale ion beam guidance is demonstrated for the first time, with the use of lateral electric fields only. Ar⁺ ions of ~2 keV are shown to be guided and bent along a curved path to realize a 90° turn, in silicon micro-fabricated channels of radius 1-mm and 2 mm respectively and on printed circuit boards of 4-mm radius. The lateral field guides can be used to guide charged particles for energy analysis or acceleration. Chip-scale ion acceleration and deceleration, of up to 30eV, is also demonstrated with the use of longitudinal electrical fields. These methods pave the way towards complete ion manipulation in MEMS electrostatic actuators and modulators to control chip-scale lateral ion fluxes. Applications include compact generation of pharmaceutical radioisotopes, x-ray sources, RF radiation and fusion sources.