Laser-cooled atoms and their ionization: perspectives in focused ion beam technologies

Since from their initial introduction, laser-cooling techniques have been proposed as a viable approach to improve the performance of many existing technologies. Recently, a concrete possibility [1] has been outlined in the field of focused ion beams (FIBs), an extremely powerful and versatile nanofabrication method. We demonstrate the potential shown by ionization of laser-cooled atoms [2] in the realization of bright and monochromatic ion beams, targeted to surpass the features of the present FIB machines [3,4]. 1. L. Kime et al., Phys. Rev. A 88, 033424 (2013). 2. N. Porfido et al., Phys. Rev. A 92, 043408 (2015). 3. M. Viteau et al., Ultramicroscopy 64, 70 (2016). 4. G. Shayeganrad et al., Phys. Rev. Applied 5, 054020 (2016)