Evaluation of a Neon Focused Field Ion Source: Fabrication and Characteristics
A new type of gaseous field ion source, operated with the inert gas neon, was developed. The source material used was the equiatomic B 2-ordered Ni-Al alloy doped with small amounts of W and C. Small surface protrusions were formed by the field evaporation of the multiphase alloy containing ultrafine spherical precipitates. The emission current-voltage characteristics were recorded as a function of neon gas pressure and source temperature. Total source current densities of up to 6 nA were obtained. A source temperature just above the condensation point of Ne gas was found to generate the highest ion current
A novel approach to gaseous field ion sources for focused ion beam applications
Abstract Experiments have demonstrated that significantly increased angular current densities may be obtained from protrusions formed from ultrafine precipitates compared to the normal field ion specimens. The confinement of the ion-emitting region to the precipitates is an effective method of increasing the angular current density. This type of emitter may be a potential candidate for gaseous focused ion sources.
The Human Rights Act and Parliamentary Democracy
The Human Rights Act 1998 is the culmination of an aggressive campaign for the incorporation into domestic law of the European Convention on Human Rights, a campaign in which the judges joined forces with other political activists. Variously described as 'brilliant';' 'a masterly exposition of the parliamentary draftsman's art';2 and even 'a thing of intellectual beauty',3 the Act has also been greeted as an 'ingenious compromise' between the 'maximalists' and 'minimalists', the former supporting a judicial power to invalidate legislation, as is the case in Canada.4 But although it is purported to reconcile in 'subtle' form the protection of human rights with the sovereignty of Parliament (a claim even more credible after an important but unsung Commons amendment), the Act also represents an unprecedented transfer of political power from the executive and legislature to the judiciary, and a fundamental re-structuring of our 'political constitution'.s As such it is unquestionably the most significant formal redistribution of political power in this country since 1911,6 and perhaps since 1688 when the Bill of Rights proclaimed loudly that proceedings in Parliament ought not to be questioned or impeached in any court or any other place. In the words of Baroness Williams of Crosby, we have crossed our 'constitutional Rubicon',7 at least to the extent that the courts may now declare a statute incompatible with Convention rights. The enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998 was marked by an unusually high quality of debate, particularly in the House of Lords, with powerful performances by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Lester of Herne Hill. The performance of the latter on one occasion was too much for Lord Campbell of Alloway, unaccustomed it seems to cerebral rather than ceremonial contributions in their Lordships' House. Lord Campbell was heard to protest (in a manner dubbed 'offensive' by Lord Ackner)8 about 'these escoteric lectures on law at this time of night', having 'never heard anything like this after dinner' in the 18 years he had been in the Lords.9 He had better get used to it: the law and the lawyers are about to dominate all the debates, at all times of the day and night, before and after every meal time. Indeed in the Second Reading Debate on this Bill in the House of Lords 'full of