Instabilities caused during the erosion of a surface by an ion beam can lead to the formation of self-organized patterns of nanostructures. Understanding the self-organization process requires not only the in-situ characterization of ensemble averaged properties but also probing the dynamics. This can be done with the use of coherent X-rays and analyzing the temporal correlations of the scatter...

The effects of H2O vapor introduced during focused ion beam ~FIB! milling of diamond~100! are examined. In particular, we determine the yield, surface morphology, and microstructural damage that results from FIB sputtering and H2O-assisted FIB milling processes. Experiments involving 20 keV Ga bombardment to doses ;10 ions/cm are conducted at a number of fixed ion incidence angles, u. For each ...

Dry etching techniques employing ion beam induced surface reaction and the possibility of highly charged ion beam in dry etching are described, and the preliminary work on dry etching of GaAs using highly charged ion (HCI) is also presented. In usual dry etching, total etch rate is a summation of the physical sputtering rate, the chemical etching rate, and the ion-induced chemical etching rate....

New sputter deposition processes, such as biased target ion beam deposition, are beginning to be used to grow metallic superlattices. In these processes, sputtering of a target material at ion energies close to the threshold for the onset of sputtering can be used to create a low energy flux of metal atoms and reflected neutrals. Using embedded atom method potentials for fcc metals and a univer...

Ion beam milling has become a widespread specimen preparation technique for non-biological materials over the last two decades, particularly for cross-sectional and plan-view transmission electron microscope (TEM) specimens. The basic principle of ion milling involves bombarding a specimen with energetic ions or neutral atoms acclerated and formed into a tightly focused ion beam. Material is sp...

We report a new method for the fabrication of sub-10 nm nanopores in a fast single process step. The pore formation is accomplished by exploiting the competition between sputtering and deposition in ion-beam-induced deposition (IBID) on a thin membrane. The pore diameter can be controlled by adjusting the ion beam and gas exposure conditions. The pore diameter is well below the limit that can b...

Gas-mediated electron beam induced etching (EBIE) is a nanoscale, direct-write technique analogous to gas-assisted focused ion beam (FIB) milling. The main advantage of EBIE is the elimination of sputtering and ion implantation during processing as well as greater material selectivity [1]. Here we discuss recent developments that expand the scope of EBIE applications in nanofabrication and defe...

A beam experiment is presented to study heterogeneous reactions relevant to plasma-surface interactions in reactive sputtering applications. Atom and ion sources are focused onto the sample to expose it to quantified beams of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, noble gas ions, and metal vapor. The heterogeneous surface processes are monitored in situ by means of a quartz crystal microbalance and Fourie...