New experimental setup for metallic clusters production based on hollow cylindrical magnetron sputtering

Nanoscale structures have been widely studied because their properties differ greatly from their bulk counterpart systems, raising both a fundamental and technological interest. Despite the great advances that have been made, the domain still presents great challenges. The development of dedicated instrumentation, in particular, is an essential issue since the well established techniques used for atomic size and for macroscopic systems are often not suited for the study of nanoaggregates. In this article, the authors present the development of a new cluster source aimed to produce pure or alloy metallic clusters ranging from two up to thousands atoms in a controllable way. The setup is based on the design of Haberland et al. [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. 12, 2925 (1994)] with the implementation of an hollow cylindrical sputtering as atoms source that enhances the control over the production of alloy clusters and also improves target usage. (C) 2014 American Vacuum Society.