Monte Carlo Simulations of Focused Ion Beam Induced Processing

Abstract

Focused ion beam technologies have revolutionized the modern material research, development and production. It has offered new possibilities for materials modification and fabrication with a higher spatial resolution by using helium and neon ions. In recent years, various experimental and numerical simulation approaches have been developed and implemented to broaden the applications of focused ion beam technology. The Monte Carlo (MC) simulation approach is one of the useful techniques to study the ion-solid interactions which provides crucial quantitative information which cannot be achieved, in some cases, from the experiments. The MC approaches have a number of advantages over analytical calculations. It allows a more rigorous treatment of scattering events, energy distribution of incident ions, recoil target atoms or molecules and secondary electrons as well as their angular distributions. This chapter presents a brief introduction of a Monte Carlo simulator called EnvizION and some simulation results related to focused ion beam induced physical sputtering, Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) mask repairs, and sputtering-limiting as well as resolution-limiting effects.