Nanostructured Arrays Formed by Finely Focused Ion Beams

Abstract

AbstractAmorphous, polycrystalline, and single crystal nanometer dimension particles can be formed in a variety of substrates by ion implantation and subsequent annealing. Such composite colloidal materials exhibit unique optical properties that could be useful in optical devices, switches, and waveguides. However colloids formed by blanket implantation are not uniform in size due to the nonuniform density of the implant, resulting in diminution of the size dependent optical properties. The object of the present work is to form more uniform size particles arranged in a 2-dimensional lattice by using a finely focused ion beam to implant identical ion doses only into nanometer size regions located at each point of a rectangular lattice. Initial work is being done with a 30 keV Ga beam implanted into Si. Results of particle formation as a function of implant conditions as analyzed by Rutherford backscattering, x-ray analysis, atomic force microscopy, and both scanning and transmission electron microscopy will be presented and discussed.