Archive for the ‘research’ Category
Electron postgrowth irradiation
Our paper titled “Electron postgrowth irradiation of platinum-containing nanostructures grown by electron-beam-induced deposition from Pt(PF3)4″ has been published online now. We describe how the microstructure of EBID deposits created from Pt(PF3)4, notably the platinum nanocrystallite grain size, evolves with electron fluence in a controllable manner. The resistivity was observed to decrease as a result of postgrowth electron irradiation, with the lowest observed value of 215 ± 15 uOhm.cm. We demonstrate that electron beam-induced changes in microstructure can be caused using electron fluences similar to those used during the course of EBID and we suggest that the observed effects can be used to tailor the microstructure and functionality of deposits grown by EBID in situ without breaking vacuum.
A. Botman, C. W. Hagen, J. Li, B. L. Thiel, K. A. Dunn, J. J. L. Mulders, S. Randolph and M. Toth; J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B Volume 27, Issue 6, pp. 2759-2763 (2009). doi:10.1116/1.3253551
PhD : completed
On 21 December 2009 I defended my doctoral (PhD) thesis at the Technische Universiteit Delft (The Netherlands). The PDF of my thesis can be found on the TU Delft repository or on this website.
Topical review
My topical review has just been published!
“Creating pure nanostructures from electron-beam-induced deposition using purification techniques: a technology perspective“, A. Botman, J. J. L. Mulders, C. W. Hagen, Nanotechnology 20 372001 (2009).
An extract from the abstract to whet your apetite:
[...] The benefits of the technology include fast ‘point-and-shoot’ creation of three-dimensional nanostructures at predefined locations directly within a scanning electron microscope. One significant drawback to date has been the low purity level of the deposition. This has two independent causes: (1) partial or incomplete decomposition of the precursor molecule and (2) contamination from the residual chamber gas. This frequently limits the functionality of the structure, hence it is desirable to improve the decomposition and prevent the inclusion of contaminants. In this contribution we review and compare for the first time all the techniques specifically aimed at purifying the as-deposited impure EBID structures. [...]
Small bridge
This was my entry to the EIPBN 2009 micro & nano-graph contest, titled “IBID micro-bridge / romantic yearnings”. It won in the “best video” category.
It shows live scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging of the microfabrication of a bridge by ion-beam-induced deposition (IBID) using a Ga+ beam of a platinum precursor, playback speed is 8x. It was made in a FEI Quanta 3D FEG (a dual-beam instrument).
Copyright Aurelien Botman and Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) 2009.
Music is Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an exhibition – Promenade II” played by Vladimir Horowitz in 1947.
Nanoletter
Our article on “Focused electron-beam-induced deposition of 3 nm dots in a scanning electron microscope” has been published in Nano Letters. It demonstrates that high-resolution EBID is not just limited to transmission electron microscopes.