Focused Helium Ion Beam Research Articles

Focused-helium-ion-beam blow forming of nanostructures: radiation damage and nanofabrication

Targeted irradiation of nanostructures by a finely focused ion beam provides routes to improved control of material modification and understanding of the physics of interactions between ion beams and nanomaterials. Here, we studied radiation damage in crystalline diamond and silicon nanostructures using a focused helium ion beam, with the former exhibiting extremely long-range ion propagation and large plastic deformation in a process visibly analogous to blow forming. We report the dependence of damage morphology on material, geometry, and irradiation conditions (ion dose, ion energy, ion species, and location). We anticipate that our method and findings will not only improve the understanding of radiation damage in isolated nanostructures, but will also support the design of new engineering materials and devices for current and future applications in nanotechnology.

Series arrays of planar long Josephson junctions for high dynamic range magnetic flux detection

We investigated series arrays of closely spaced, planar long Josephson junctions for magnetic field transduction in Earth’s field, with a linear response and high dynamic range. The devices were fabricated from thin film high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) thin films, using focused helium ion beam irradiation to create the Josephson barriers. Four series arrays, each consisting of several hundreds of long junctions, were fabricated and electrically tested. From fits of the current-voltage characteristics, we estimate the standard deviation in critical current to be around 25%. Voltage-magnetic field measurements exhibit a transfer function of 42 mV/mT and a linear response over a range of 303 μT at 71 K, resulting in a dynamic range of 124 dB.

Tuning Y–Ba–Cu–O Focused Helium Ion Beam Josephson Junctions for Use as THz Mixers

We present Josephson junctions fabricated from high transition temperature superconductor YBa <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> Cu <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</sub> coupled to spiral THz antennas. The fabrication process involves creating a Josephson junction at the center of a superconducting bridge embedded into a THz spiral antenna using irradiation from a focused helium ion beam. For low doses of helium irradiation, the junctions have metallic barriers and operate at temperatures as high as 67 K. For higher doses of irradiation, insulator barriers are created. These devices have higher resistance but require cooling to lower temperatures (~10 K) due to smaller critical currents. Through optimization of the dose and by trimming the width of the junctions, we have created high resistance devices to improve the impedance match to a spiral antenna. Under 90-GHz radiation, we observe up to 17 Shapiro steps in the I-V curve out to approximately 3 mV at a temperature of 10 K.

Reduced Critical Current Spread in Planar MgB2 Josephson Junction Array Made by Focused Helium Ion Beam

We have fabricated series arrays of closely spaced planar Josephson junctions on MgB2 films using a 30 keV focused helium ion beam. Uniformity of junction parameters within the arrays is sufficient for achieving phase-lock into an applied microwave signal, and flat giant Shapiro steps are observed. The spread in critical current of a 60-Josephson junction array is estimated to be less than 3.5%, significantly better than reported in MgB2 junctions fabricated by other techniques. These results demonstrate the potential of the focused He <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> ion beam irradiation technique in MgB2 Josephson multi-junction circuit applications such as quantum voltage standards.

Inductance Investigation of YBa2Cu3O7−δNano-Slit SQUIDs Fabricated With a Focused Helium Ion Beam

Focused helium ion beam material modification is ideally suited for the fabrication of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) Josephson junctions and superconducting feature sizes down to the nanoscale. We report the fabrication and measurement of YBCO nano-slit SQUIDs and study how scaling the dimensions of the SQUID body and electrodes influences the electrical properties. Sixteen nano-slit SQUIDs with different width and length were fabricated from a single-layer 25-nm-thick YBCO film. The experimental results yield an estimation of the sheet inductance to be ∼4 pH/□ and a penetration depth of ∼180 nm. The temperature dependence of the inductance agree well with an impurity scattering model, indicating that the T C of the film was ∼82 K, and the ratio between geometric inductance and kinetic inductance at 0 K was ∼0.8. These results provide solid basis for the design of high-performance, high- T C micro-SQUID magnetometers.

Normal-state and superconducting properties of Co-doped BaFe2As2 and MgB2 thin films after focused helium ion beam irradiation

We have investigated the normal-state and superconducting properties of Co-doped BaFe2As2 (Ba122) and MgB2 thin films irradiated at room temperature using a 30 keV focused He+ ion beam with doses between 1012 and 1017 cm2. We show that superconductivity is suppressed and the normal-state resistivity is increased upon irradiation. The critical dose for the complete suppression of superconductivity is ∼5 × 1014 cm−2 for Ba122 and ∼8 × 1015 cm−2 for MgB2. The dependence of the normal-state and superconducting properties on irradiation dose is discussed, taking into account the spatial distribution of ion-induced damage. Hillock formation due to the substrate swelling, arising from the He+ ions stopped in the substrate, is also observed. The findings provide guidelines for exploiting focused He+ ion beam irradiation in fabricating iron pnictide and MgB2 planar Josephson junctions.

Measurement of Magnetic Nanoparticles Using High Transition Temperature Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices

Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) based sensors hold promise for magnetic detection of magnetically tagged biological cells. In this work, a high transition temperature (high-T <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">C</sub> ) direct-coupled SQUID micro-magnetometer was fabricated from a 30-nm-thick YBa <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> Cu <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7-δ</sub> (YBCO) thin film. The SQUID was directly written with irradiation from a finely focused helium ion beam without milling or etching any material. An experiment estimating the sensitivity of the magnetometer to magnetic nanoparticles was conducted that revealed the magnetic moment calculated based on the measurement of the SQUID magnetometer is consistent to that obtained from susceptibility measurements.

Site-selectively generated photon emitters in monolayer MoS2 via local helium ion irradiation

Quantum light sources in solid-state systems are of major interest as a basic ingredient for integrated quantum photonic technologies. The ability to tailor quantum emitters via site-selective defect engineering is essential for realizing scalable architectures. However, a major difficulty is that defects need to be controllably positioned within the material. Here, we overcome this challenge by controllably irradiating monolayer MoS2 using a sub-nm focused helium ion beam to deterministically create defects. Subsequent encapsulation of the ion exposed MoS2 flake with high-quality hBN reveals spectrally narrow emission lines that produce photons in the visible spectral range. Based on ab-initio calculations we interpret these emission lines as stemming from the recombination of highly localized electron–hole complexes at defect states generated by the local helium ion exposure. Our approach to deterministically write optically active defect states in a single transition metal dichalcogenide layer provides a platform for realizing exotic many-body systems, including coupled single-photon sources and interacting exciton lattices that may allow the exploration of Hubbard physics.

Study of damage generation induced by focused helium ion beam in silicon

Helium ion microscope (HIM) has presented an outstanding ability to image and nanofabricate thin film and two-dimensional materials with high precision. However, the concomitant damage and implantation induced by focused helium ion beam should influence the imaging quality and nanomachining efficiency inevitably, especially for bulk samples. In this work, the authors investigated the generation process of damages at nanoscales in single crystalline bulk silicon caused by ions implantation in HIM using transmission electron microscopy. The dependence of implantation and damage on ion dose, ion energy, and beam current was also discussed and analyzed. It was found that the damage should be originated from the local defects caused by ion implantation and the crystal structure could be gradually destroyed and transform into amorphous silicon with the generation and growth of subsurface nanobubbles as ion dose increased. The local concentration of implanted helium ion was found as a universal factor to impact on the damage level and the size of nanobubbles directly. These findings not only shed lights on the effective imaging and nanofabrication of HIM but also provide a further understanding in the nuclear irradiation area.

Time-effective strategies for the fabrication of poly- and single-crystalline gold nano-structures by focused helium ion beam milling

Milling with the focused helium ion beam of a helium ion microscope is one of the most accurate ways to produce nano-structures such as plasmonic nanoantennas. In addition to good and immediate control of the dimensions, features in the sub-10 nm regime are achievable. Especially small gaps and sharp tips in this regime may lead to very high field enhancement under excitation. However, the milling rate of 30 keV helium ions is rather low, making it time-consuming to cut nano-structures out of a gold film. We present two processes to work around the low milling rate to obtain arrays of nano-structures with maximum precision within a reasonable time. These strategies can both be adapted to either poly-crystalline gold films or single-crystalline gold flakes. Using single crystals from a fabrication point of view enables even higher precision due to constant etch rates over the whole crystal as well as straight edges and vertical side-walls due to the uniform crystalline structure.

Fabrication of a nanofiber Bragg cavity with high quality factor using a focused helium ion beam.

Nanofiber Bragg cavities (NFBCs) are solid-state microcavities fabricated in an optical tapered fiber. NFBCs are promising candidates as a platform for photonic quantum information devices due to their small mode volume, ultra-high coupling efficiencies, and ultra-wide tunability. However, the quality (Q) factor has been limited to be approximately 250, which may be due to limitations in the fabrication process. Here we report high Q NFBCs fabricated using a focused helium ion beam. Whenan NFBC with grooves of 640 periods is fabricated, the Q factor is over 4170, which is more than 16 times larger than that previously fabricated using a focused gallium ion beam.

Gallium, neon and helium focused ion beam milling of thin films demonstrated for polymeric materials: study of implantation artifacts.

Focused ion beam milling of ∼200 nm polymer thin films is investigated using a multibeam ion microscope equipped with a gallium liquid metal ion source and a helium/neon gas field-ionization source. The quality of gallium, neon, and helium ion milled edges in terms of ion implantation artifacts is analyzed using a combination of helium ion microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and light microscopy. Results for a synthetic polymer thin film, in the form of cryo-ultramicrotomed sections from a co-extruded polymer multilayer, and a biological polymer thin film, in the form of the base layer of a butterfly wing scale, are presented. While gallium and neon ion milling result in the implantation of ions up to tens of nanometers from the milled edge and local thinning near the edge, helium ion milling produces much sharper edges with dramatically reduced implantation. These effects can be understood in terms of the minimal lateral scatter and larger stopping distance of helium compared with the heavier ions, whereby due to the thin film geometry, most of the incident helium ions will pass straight through the material. The basic result demonstrated here for polymer thin films is also expected for thin films of hard materials such as metals and ceramics.

Direct-coupled micro-magnetometer with Y-Ba-Cu-O nano-slit SQUID fabricated with a focused helium ion beam.

Direct write patterning of high-transition temperature (high-TC) superconducting oxide thin films with a focused helium ion beam is a formidable approach for the scaling of high-TC circuit feature sizes down to the nanoscale. In this letter, we report using this technique to create a sensitive micro superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer with a sensing area of about 100 × 100 μm2. The device is fabricated from a single 35-nm thick YBa2Cu3O7−δ film. A flux concentrating pick-up loop is directly coupled to a 10 nm × 20 μm nano-slit SQUID. The SQUID is defined entirely by helium ion irradiation from a gas field ion source. The irradiation converts the superconductor to an insulator, and no material is milled away or etched. In this manner, a very narrow non-superconducting nano-slit is created entirely within the plane of the film. The narrow slit dimension allows for maximization of the coupling to the field concentrator. Electrical measurements reveal a large 0.35 mV modulation with a magnetic field. We measure a white noise level of 2 μΦ0/Hz1∕2. The field noise of the magnetometer is 4 pT/Hz1∕2 at 4.2 K.

3D Nanostructures Grown via Focused Helium Ion Beam Induced Deposition

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Superconducting nano Josephson junctions patterned with a focused helium ion beam

We report the fabrication of nanoscale wires and Josephson junctions in 25 nm thick YBa2Cu3O7–δ thin films with wire widths as narrow as 50 nm. Our approach utilizes a finely focused gas field ion source from a helium ion microscope to directly modify the material on the nanometer scale to convert irradiated regions of the film into insulators. In this manner, the film remains intact and no material is milled or removed. Transport data show that the electrical properties, critical current and conductance, scale linearly with the lithographically defined width ensuring that the actual and lithographically defined dimensions are commensurate with each other. Unlike in typical ion damage proximity effect Josephson junctions, we observe a low temperature saturation of the critical current and near temperature interdependent resistance which we attribute to a narrower and more resistive barrier. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the ability to fabricate devices exhibiting high resistance and capacitance with hysteretic underdamped Josephson junction properties. This patterning technique allows for a broad range of electrical properties for Josephson devices that will expand potential applications.

MgB2 Josephson junctions produced by focused helium ion beam irradiation

Planar magnesium diboride Josephson junctions are fabricated using focused helium ion beam irradiation. A single track of ion irradiation with a 30 kV He+ beam with nominal beam diameter &amp;lt; 0.5 nm is used to create a normal-metal barrier on a MgB2 film deposited by hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition. Josephson coupling is observed below the critical temperature of the electrodes for a He+ doses between 8x1015/cm2 to 4x1016/cm2. Analysis of the temperature dependence of the normal resistance and critical voltage of the junctions shows highly uniform barriers with nearly ideal resistively-shunted junction behavior for higher-dose junctions, while nonequilibrium effects dominate the properties of lower-dose junctions over most of the temperature range. These results demonstrate that focused helium ion beam irradiation can produce high-quality proximity-coupled MgB2 Josephson junctions with tailorable properties, promising for use in superconducting devices and circuits.

3D Volumetric Energy Deposition of Focused Helium Ion Beam Lithography: Visualization, Modeling, and Applications in Nanofabrication

AbstractIn this paper, 3D volumetric energy deposition and local crosslinking of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) are experimentally and numerically explored in focused helium ion beam lithography (HIBL). In particular, a through‐membrane exposure method is developed to make visible and subsequently to measure the 3D interaction volume and energy deposition of helium ions in HSQ. By comparing the actual dimensions of the crosslinked HSQ structures with Monte Carlo modeling of the spatial distribution of the energy deposition, the critical energy density for crosslinking HSQ is obtained. Finally, 3D nanofabrication of complex crosslinked HSQ nanostructures such as embedded nanochannels and suspended grids is demonstrated using two different exposure configurations. The proposed method expands the 2D point spread function of HIBL into three dimensions, thus opening a new avenue for nanoscale 3D fabrication.

A single nano-void precisely positioned in SiO2/Si substrate by focused helium ion beam technique

We report on the formation of a single nano-void, precisely positioned in SiO2/Si, using He-ion beam technique. The in-plane position of the void can be achieved by the direct writing capability of the He-ion beam system. While the depth and size of void are able to be determined by the acceleration voltage and dosage of the He+-ions, respectively. The as-written sample shows an ellipsoidal shape amorphous region in Si. Thermal treatments aggregate He-vacancy complexes and He bubble defects to form a void in the central of the region. At the same time, recrystallization starts from the boundary between the amorphous and crystal Si. Through HAADF imaging, EDX scanning profile and SEM imaging, we show the existence of a nano-void at a predicted depth. For the sample annealed at 825 °C, we observed a single void formed by {111} facets.

Structurally Controlled Large-Area 10 nm Pitch Graphene Nanomesh by Focused Helium Ion Beam Milling.

Graphene nanomesh (GNM) is formed by patterning graphene with nanometer-scale pores separated by narrow necks. GNMs are of interest due to their potential semiconducting characteristics when quantum confinement in the necks leads to an energy gap opening. GNMs also have potential for use in phonon control and water filtration. Furthermore, physical phenomena, such as spin qubit, are predicted at pitches below 10 nm fabricated with precise structural control. Current GNM patterning techniques suffer from either large dimensions or a lack of structural control. This work establishes reliable GNM patterning with a sub-10 nm pitch and an < 4 nm pore diameter by the direct helium ion beam milling of suspended monolayer graphene. Due to the simplicity of the method, no postpatterning processing is required. Electrical transport measurements reveal an effective energy gap opening of up to ∼450 meV. The reported technique combines the highest resolution with structural control and opens a path toward GNM-based, room-temperature semiconducting applications.

Sub-10 nm electron and helium ion beam lithography using a recently developed alumina resist

Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) at sub-10nm resolution is mainly limited by resist contrast and proximity effects. In this work, we investigate the use of a recently developed alumina-based resist as a negative-tone resist for EBL at 100keV and focused helium ion beam lithography (FHIBL). The resist is synthesized using a sol-gel method and turns into a near completely inorganic alumina system when exposed to the electron/ion beam. We first investigate the effect on the resist contrast curve on i) development temperature; ii) stability of the resist after exposure and before post-baking and development; and iii) aging of the resist solution. We demonstrate the patterning of isolated features as small as 6.5nm using an EBL and 5nm using FHIBL and a resolution down to 10nm for FHIB exposed films. Finally, we demonstrate the pattern transfer of 10nm lines with an aspect ratio of 10 in silicon, using an optimized reactive ion etching process.