Patent ID: 9574263
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: B81C,B82B,B82Y,C23C

Claim:
1. A soft-landing (SL) method for depositing or patterning one or more ions, ionized nanoclusters, metal-ligand complexes, polymers, biopolymers, or combinations thereof, for liquid crystal formation, for controlled deposition of lubricants into MEMS devices, and for preparing catalytic surfaces comprising the steps of: providing a SL instrument comprising a drift tube and a split-ring ion optic, wherein the SL instrument comprises: a four-way and reducing cross housing with one or more standard conflat (CF) flanges; a SL chamber housed in the four-way and reducing cross housing wherein the chamber comprises: an opening or a quartz view-port attached to the four-way and reducing cross, wherein a laser pulse or a radiation enters the chamber through the opening or the view-port; and a linear/rotational feed through line directly opposite the opening or the view-port, wherein the feed through line is inline with an incident radiation or pulse and may optionally be attached directly to the sample, a sample holder or the target; a drift tube comprising: one or more steel rings coupled by a series of vacuum resistors; one or more thread rods isolated by alumina spacers attached to two outer guard rings; and one or more sapphire sphere spacers placed in between the steel rings; two split rings placed at the two ends of the drift tube, wherein the split rings direct an ion cluster beam emanating from the drift tube; a rail system to hold and adjust a detector that monitors the ion beam and collects a drift tube spectra and the landing surface for depositing or patterning the one or more ions; and a quick door (CF) flange to remove or replace the detector, the landing surface, and the sample; ionizing a target, a sample, a composition, or any combinations thereof comprising at least one component capable of generating one or more ions by laser ablation in the SL instrument; separating and thermalizing the one or more ions in the drift tube of the SL instrument by collision with a high pressure inert bath gas or a gas mixture contained in the drift tube; directing the thermalized ions using the split-ring ion optic from the drift tube to a detector or to a landing surface; and soft-landing the ions on the landing surface.