Exploration of the Ultimate Patterning Potential Achievable with Focused Ion Beams

2008 ◽  
Vol 1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Gierak ◽  
Eric Bourhis ◽  
Dominique Mailly ◽  
Gilles Patriarche ◽  
Ali Madouri ◽  
...  

AbstractDecisive advances in the fields of nanosciences and nanotechnologies are intimately related to the development of new instruments and of related writing schemes and methodologies. Therefore we have recently proposed exploitation of the nano-structuring potential of a highly Focused Ion Beam as a tool, to overcome intrinsic limitations of current nano-fabrication techniques and to allow innovative patterning schemes urgently needed in many nanoscience challenges. In this work, we will first detail a very high resolution FIB instrument we have developed specifically to meet these nano-fabrication requirements. Then we will introduce and illustrate some advanced FIB processing schemes. These patterning schemes are (i) Ultra thin membranes as an ideal template for FIB nanoprocessing. (ii) Local defect injection for magnetic thin film direct patterning. (iii) Functionalization of graphite substrates to prepare 2D-organized arrays of clusters. (iv) FIB engineering of the optical properties of microcavities.

1999 ◽  
Vol 595 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kuball ◽  
M. Benyoucef ◽  
F.H. Morrissey ◽  
C.T. Foxon

AbstractWe report on the nano-fabrication of GaN/AlGaN device structures using focused ion beam (FIB) etching, illustrated on a GaN/AlGaN heterostructure field effect transistor (HFET). Pillars as small as 20nm to 300nm in diameter were fabricated from the GaN/AlGaN HFET. Micro-photoluminescence and UV micro-Raman maps were recorded from the FIB-etched pattern to assess its material quality. Photoluminescence was detected from 300nm-size GaN/AlGaN HFET pillars, i.e., from the AlGaN as well as the GaN layers in the device structure, despite the induced etch damage. Properties of the GaN and the AlGaN layers in the FIB-etched areas were mapped using UV Micro-Raman spectroscopy. Damage introduced by FIB-etching was assessed. The fabricated nanometer-size GaN/AlGaN structures were found to be of good quality. The results demonstrate the potential of FIB-etching for the nano-fabrication of III-V nitride devices.


2001 ◽  
Vol 635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen B. Cronin ◽  
Yu-Ming Lin ◽  
Pratibha L. Gai ◽  
Oded Rabin ◽  
Marcie R. Black ◽  
...  

AbstractWe have synthesized single crystal bismuth nanowires by pressure injecting molten Bi into anodic alumina templates. By varying the template fabrication conditions, nanowires with diameters ranging from 10 to 200nm and lengths of ~50[.proportional]m can be produced. We present a scheme for measuring the resistance of a single Bi nanowire using a 4-point measurement technique. The nanowires are found to have a 7nm thick oxide layer which causes very high contact resistance when electrodes are patterned on top of the nanowires. The oxide is found to be resilient to acid etching, but can be successfully reduced in high temperature hydrogen and ammonia environments. The reformation time of the oxide in air is found to be less than 1 minute. Focused ion beam milling is attempted as an alternate solution to oxide removal.


2012 ◽  
Vol 717-720 ◽  
pp. 889-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamidreza Zamani ◽  
Seung Wan Lee ◽  
Amir Avishai ◽  
Christian A. Zorman ◽  
R. Mohan Sankaran ◽  
...  

We report on experimental explorations of using focused ion beam (FIB) nanomachining of different types of silicon carbide (SiC) thin membranes, for making robust, high-quality stencil masks for new emerging options of nanoscale patterning. Using thin films and membranes in polycrystalline SiC (poly-SiC), 3C-SiC, and amorphous SiC (a-SiC) with thicknesses in the range of t~250nm−1.6μm, we have prototyped a series of stencil masks, with nanoscale features routinely down to ~100nm.


1985 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Gamo ◽  
Susumu Namba

Recent advances of focused ion beam systems and their applications are presented. The applications include maskless ion implantation and various maskless patterning techniques which make use of ion induced chemical effects. These are ion beam assisted etching, deposition and ion beam modification techniques and are promising to improve patterning speed and extend applications of focused ion beams.


2002 ◽  
Vol 761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biao Li ◽  
Huimin Xie ◽  
Xin Zhang

ABSTRACTThe accurate determination of residual stress/strain in thin films is especially important in the emerging field of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS). In this article, a focused ion beam (FIB) moiré method is proposed and demonstrated to measure the strain in MEMS structures. This technique is based on the advantages of the FIB system in nano-fabrication, imaging, in-situ deposition, and fine adjustment. Nano-grating lines with 70 nm width and 140 nm spacing are directly written on the top of the MEMS structures by ion milling without the requirement of an etch mask. The FIB moiré pattern is formed by the interference between a prepared specimen grating and FIB raster scan lines. The strain of the MEMS structures is derived by calculating the average spacing of moiré fringes. Since the local strain of a MEMS structure itself can be monitored during the process, the FIB moiré technique has many potential applications in the mechanical metrology of MEMS. As an example, the strain distribution along the sticking MEMS structures, and the contribution of surface oxidization and mass loading to the cantilever strain is determined by this FIB moiré technique.


CIRP Annals ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 511-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongwei Xu ◽  
Fengzhou Fang ◽  
Haifeng Gao ◽  
Yibo Zhu ◽  
Wei Wu ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Jack Zhou ◽  
Guoliang Yang

In this paper we describe a top down nano-fabrication method to make single-digit nanoholes that we aim to use for DNA and RNA characterization. There are three major steps towards the fabrication of a single-digit nanohole. 1) Preparing the freestanding thin film by epitaxial deposition and electrochemical etching. 2) Making sub-micro holes (0.2 μm to 0.02μm) by focused ion beam (FIB), electron beam (EB), atomic force microscope (AFM), or other methods. 3) Reducing the hole to less than 10 nm by epitaxial deposition, FIB or EB induced deposition. One specific aim for this paper is to model, simulate and control the focused ion beam machining process to fabricate holes which can reach single-digit nanometer scale on solid-state thin films. Preliminary work has been done on the thin film (30 nm in thickness) preparation, sub-micron hole fabrication, and ion beam induced deposition, and results are presented.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Cox ◽  
John C. Gallop ◽  
Ling Hao

AbstractFocused ion beam (FIB) has found a steady and growing use as a tool for fabrication, particularly in the length-scale of micrometres down to nanometres. Traditionally more commonly used for materials characterisation, FIB is continually finding new research areas in a growing number of laboratories. For example, over the last ten years the number of FIB instruments in the U.K. alone has gone from single figures, largely supplied by a single manufacturer, to many tens of instruments supplied by several competing manufacturers. Although the smaller of the two research areas, FIB fabrication has found itself to be incredibly powerful in the modification and fabrication of devices for all kinds of experimentation. Here we report our use of FIB in the production of Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) and other closely related devices for metrological applications. This is an area ideally suited to FIB fabrication as the required precision is very high, the number of required devices is relatively low, but the flexibility of using FIB means that a large range of smallbatch, and often unique, devices can be constructed quickly and with very short lead times.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuya Takasawa ◽  
Naoyuki Fukutake ◽  
Kazumasa Okamoto ◽  
Akihiro Oshima ◽  
Seiichi Tagawa ◽  
...  

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