Novel uses of a wide-beam saddle-field ion source for producing targets at the Argonne National Laboratory

The wide-beam ion sputter source has several unique characteristics which make it very useful for producing, reducing the thickness or cleaning the surface of targets manufactured from expensive separated isotope. A discussion of these techniques as well as the sputter-source characteristics will be given. Sputter yields obtained utilizing this source are presented for a variety of materials common to nuclear-target production.