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Faraday Cup

CAMECA Faraday Cup for electron cyclotron resonance ion source applications

The CAMECA Faraday Cup is used to measure the ion or electron current delivered by particle sources. Mobile under vacuum via flexible connections to electronics, it enables more flexibility to suit specific applications.

The source module is delivered with:
  • 1 BNC for measurement – compatible with control command rack for TES sources
  • 1 power supply cable
Various apertures are available, with adaptable diameters:
  • Slit : up to 19mm long and 5mm wide standard
  • Hole : 1mm diameter
  • Circle : up to 18.5mm diameter
Faraday Cup’s aperture can be tailored to your specific needs.
  • Specifications +


    Faraday Cup Mechanical characteristics
    Flange type for vacuum feedthrough 1 port CF40
    Mobile under vacuum Yes, flexible connections to electronics
    Aperture range Circular : Up to 18.5mm
    Slit : Up to 19mm long, 5mm wide standard
    Adaptable to the demand
    Mass cover diameter 32 mm
    Overall length Faraday Cup (under vacuum) : 80.5mm
    Electronics : 100.8mm with BNC connector
    Faraday Cup Recommended use
    Beam Power Rating Up to 20W
    Reading precision 0.1% of max calibration current
    Calibration current Adjustable from 0…100 nA to 0…100 mA
    Input A.C. Voltage 230V
    Polarisation Voltage Up to 200V
    Beam Polarity (Positive or Negative) Both
    Electrical connection 1 BNC for measurement (supplied) – compatible with
    control command rack for TES sources
    1 power supply cable (supplied)
    Cooling None
  • Applications +

    • Ion beam sputter deposition system applying a focused ion beam to a target material, facilitating thin film coating on a substrate
      Ion beam sputter deposition

      Ion Beam Sputter Deposition (IBSD) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique that consists in adding a thin film to the substrate surface to improve its material properties. Traditional challenges of IBSD such as high maintenance, high level of complexity, and difficulty to scale up are overcome thanks to CAMECA’s unique ECR technology.

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    • Ion implantation apparatus directing high-energy ions into a semiconductor wafer to modify its electrical properties.
      Ion implantation

      Ion implantation consists in adding ions to the interior of a substrate to change its elemental composition and improve material properties. It is commonly used for steel toughening, medical implants, and semiconductor device fabrication.

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    • Ion implantation apparatus directing high-energy ions into a semiconductor wafer to modify its electrical properties.
      Ion beam figuring (IBF)

      Ion Beam Figuring consists in locally sputtering atoms in order to create a surface with a specified profile. It is a used for precise figuring and finishing of optical elements, such as spheres, aspheres and free forms on lenses and mirrors. CAMECA’s ECR technology and ion optics system offer the highest flexibility in beam size, shape, and energy.

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    • Ion beam system performing etching and polishing processes on a material surface to achieve desired microstructures.
      Etching, cleaning, polishing & milling

      Sputter cleaning, ion polishing, milling and cutting are all based on Ion Beam Sputtering. They are used as a surface preparation step before depositing a thin film, before high resolution imaging or surface analysis as well as for nanostructuring a surface. CAMECA’s ECR technology delivers stable and reliable beams, eliminating the maintenance required with filament-based technologies.

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    • Ion assisted deposition setup enhancing thin film growth by bombarding the substrate with low-energy ions during deposition.
      Ion assisted deposition

      Ion Assisted Deposition consists in modifing the properties of a growing thin film by directing an ion beam at it. It can also be used to purposely introduce compressive stress in the film to improve its mechanical properties. The stability and reliability of CAMECA ECR technology is attractive for ion assistance applications.

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    • Advanced instrumentation used in nuclear and atomic physics research for analyzing atomic structures and reactions.
      Nuclear and atomic physics

      CAMECA high energy single cavity sources are used in various setups for nuclear and atomic physics, ranging from particle injection into electrostatic storage rings or charge boosters, to power testing of future neutron detectors.

      Keep Reading

  • Documentation +

  • Scientific publications +


    Scientific Publications

    Below is a selection of publications by users of CAMECA ECR Sources:

    Novel low-temperature and high-flux hydrogen plasma source for extreme-ultraviolet lithography applications. A. S. Stodolna, T. W. Mechielsen, P. van der Walle, C. Meekes, H. Lensen. Published Online: 6 August 2024. Read full article

    Ion source developments to supply mono & multi charged ion beams to the new NHa C400 hadrontherapy system. L. Maunoury, P. Velten, X. Donzel, V. Engelen, G. Collignon, P. Sortais, J. Perrussel, P. Paliard and D. Bérard. Citation L. Maunoury et al 2024 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2743 012090.  Read full article

    Development of a high current electron beam facility for compact accelerator neutron source target thermal tests. J.F. Muraz, D. Santos, V. Ghetta, J. Giraud, O. Guillaudin, P. Sortais, T. Thuillier, J. Marpaud, M. Chala, M. Forlino, M. Hervé. Volume 1062, May 2024, 169214.  Read full article

    Controlling the optical properties of hafnium dioxide thin films deposited with electron cyclotron resonance ion beam deposition. Chalisa Gier, Marwa Ben Yaala, Callum Wiseman, Sean MacFoy, Martin Chicoine, François Schiettekatte, James Hough, Sheila Rowan, Iain Martin, Peter MacKay, Stuart Reid, Volume 771, 30 April 2023, 139781. Read full article

    Processing and characterization of a multibeam sputtered nanocrystalline CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy film. P. Nagy, N. Rohbeck, G. Roussely, P. Sortais, J.L. Lábárb, J. Gubicza, J. Michler, L. Pethö. Received 16 July 2019, Revised 31 January 2020, Accepted 11 February 2020, Available online 11 February 2020, Version of Record 29 February 2020. Read full article

    Amorphous Silicon with Extremely Low Absorption: Beating Thermal Noise in Gravitational Astronomy. I. A. Birney, J. Steinlechner, Z. Tornasi, S. MacFoy, D. Vine, A. S. Bell3, D. Gibson, J. Hough, S. Rowan et al. P. Sortais, S. Sproules, S. Tait, I. W. Martin, and S. Reid1. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 191101 – Published 6 November, 2018.
    Read full article

    Effect of elevated substrate temperature deposition on the mechanical losses in tantala thin film coatings.Classical and Quantum Gravity, 35, 075001. (doi:10.1088/1361-6382/aaad7c). Vajente, G., Birney, R., Ananyeva, A., Angelova, S., Asselin, R., Baloukas, B., Bassiri, R., Billingsley, G., Fejer, M.M., Gibson, D., Godbout, L.J., Gustafson, E., Heptonstall, A., Hough, J., MacFoy, S., Markosyan, A., Martin, I.W., Martinu, L., Murray, P.G., Penn, S., Roorda, S., Rowan, S., Schiettekatte, F., Shink, R., Torrie, C., Vine, D., Reid, S., and Adhikari, R.X.  08 February 2018. Read full article

  • Some of our ECR sources users +


    CAMECA's ECR source customers are spread over all continents, with over 80% being industrials from the semiconductor, analytics, and healthcare sectors. Here are some of our academic customers:

    • Afisy Technologies, Changsha, China
    • Centre d’Élaboration de Matériaux et d’Études Structurales (CEMES), Toulouse, France
    • Chimie des Interactions Plasma-Surface (ChIPS), Université de Mons, Belgium
    • Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Maryland, USA
    • Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France
    • Institut Lumière Matière, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
    • Institut de Physique Nucléaire d’Orsay, France
    • Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay, France
    • Institute of Thin Films, Sensors and Imaging, University of the West of Scotland, UK
    • Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (CNRS/IN2P3), Grenoble, France
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA
    • Max-Planck Institute, Heidelberg, Germany
    • Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Delft, Netherlands
    • Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK
    • TATA Institute for Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India
    • The Multi-Scale Laboratory of the Mechanics of Materials group at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
    • University of Milano Bicocca, Italy