0000000001224270
AUTHOR
Mari Napari
Development of procedures for programmable proximity aperture lithography
Abstract Programmable proximity aperture lithography (PPAL) with MeV ions has been used in Jyvaskyla and Chiang Mai universities for a number of years. Here we describe a number of innovations and procedures that have been incorporated into the LabView-based software. The basic operation involves the coordination of the beam blanker and five motor-actuated translators with high accuracy, close to the minimum step size with proper anti-collision algorithms. By using special approaches, such writing calibration patterns, linearisation of position and careful backlash correction the absolute accuracy of the aperture size and position, can be improved beyond the standard afforded by the repeata…
Experimental evidence on photo-assisted O− ion production from Al2O3 cathode in cesium sputter negative ion source
The production of negative ions in cesium sputter ion sources is generally considered to be a pure surface process. It has been recently proposed that ion pair production could explain the higher-than-expected beam currents extracted from these ion sources, therefore opening the door for laser-assisted enhancement of the negative ion yield. We have tested this hypothesis by measuring the effect of various pulsed diode lasers on the O − beam current produced from Al 2O 3 cathode of a cesium sputter ion source. It is expected that the ion pair production of O − requires populating the 5d electronic states of neutral cesium, thus implying that the process should be provoked only with specific …
Low-temperature thermal and plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition of metal oxide thin films
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a method for thin film fabrication with atomic level precision. This thesis focuses on low-temperature thermal and plasma- enhanced ALD and presents results on thin film growth by these techniques with examples of common ALD materials: Al2O3, ZnO and TiO2. As an example of limitations of the thermal ALD the nucleation and growth of Al2O3 and ZnO films on different grades of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) are presented, showing that the initiation of the growth is strongly dependent on both the deposited material and the substrate. A potential application of the ALD ZnO films in polymer surface functionalization is demonstrated by changing in the surface wettab…
Lithographic fabrication of soda-lime glass based microfluidics
Abstract Glass is an important material for chemical processing and analysis because of its relatively low cost, mechanical strength, chemical inertness, optical transparency, and electrical insulation and temperature resistance far beyond that of most polymeric materials. We have investigated techniques for direct writing with MeV ions on soda-lime glass as well as capping procedures to form closed buried channels suitable for high-pressure driven flow. Exposure and development of open-channel structures was studied using a combination of programmable proximity aperture lithography and different developers. Unlike our previous work on MeV ion beam lithography of natural silica where an 8% …
Why are hydrogen ions best for MeV ion beam lithography?
The exposure characteristics of poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) for 2MeV ^1H^+, 3MeV ^4He^2^+ and 6MeV ^1^2C^3^+ have been investigated. The samples were characterised using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Development was carried out using a 7:3 propan-2-ol:H"2O mixture to determine clearing and cross-linking fluences. It was found that protons had a considerably wider tolerance to exposure variations and a smaller span of doses within the ion track. Furthermore, the void formation and consequent stress-induced surface roughening were smaller for protons. For all ions, the C?C bond Raman signal increased continuously with dose and fluence, even we…
Nucleation and growth of ZnO on PMMA by low-temperature atomic layer deposition
ZnO films were grown by atomic layer deposition at 35 °C on poly(methyl methacrylate) substrates using diethylzinc and water precursors. The film growth, morphology, and crystallinity were studied using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. The uniform film growth was reached after several hundreds of deposition cycles, preceded by the precursor penetration into the porous bulk and island-type growth. After the full surface coverage, the ZnO films were stoichiometric, and consisted of large grains (diameter 30 nm) with a film surface roughness up to 6 nm (RMS). T…
Atomic scale surface modification of TiO2 3D nano-arrays : plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of NiO for photocatalysis
Here we report the development of a new scalable and transferable plasma assisted atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process for the production of uniform, conformal and pinhole free NiO with sub-nanometre control on a commercial ALD reactor. In this work we use the readily available nickel precursor nickelocene in conjunction with O2 plasma as a co-reagent (100 W) over a temperature range of 75–325 °C. An optimised growth per cycle of 0.036 nm was obtained at 250 °C with uniform thickness and coverage on scale-up to and including an 6 inch Si wafer (with a 200 nm thermal SiO2 top layer). The bulk characteristics of the NiO thin films were comprehensively interrogated by PXRD, Raman spectrosco…
Bandgap lowering in mixed alloys of Cs2Ag(SbxBi1−x)Br6 double perovskite thin films
Halide double perovskites have gained significant attention, owing to their composition of low-toxicity elements, stability in air and long charge-carrier lifetimes. However, most double perovskites, including Cs2AgBiBr6, have wide bandgaps, which limits photoconversion efficiencies. The bandgap can be reduced through alloying with Sb3+, but Sb-rich alloys are difficult to synthesize due to the high formation energy of Cs2AgSbBr6, which itself has a wide bandgap. We develop a solution-based route to synthesize phase-pure Cs2Ag(SbxBi1−x)Br6 thin films, with the mixing parameter x continuously varying over the entire composition range. We reveal that the mixed alloys (x between 0.5 and 0.9) d…
Ti Alloyed α-Ga2O3: Route towards Wide Band Gap Engineering
The suitability of Ti as a band gap modifier for &alpha
Highly textured Gd2Zr2O7 films grown on textured Ni-5at.%W substrates by solution deposition route: Growth, texture evolution, and microstructure dependency
Abstract Growth, texture evolution and microstructure dependency of solution derived Gd 2 Zr 2 O 7 films deposited on textured Ni-5 at.%W substrates have been extensively studied. Influence of processing parameters, in particular annealing temperature and dwell time, as well as thickness effect on film texture and morphology are investigated in details. It is found that a rotated cube-on-cube epitaxy of Gd 2 Zr 2 O 7 //NiW in-plane texture forms as soon as the (004) out-plane texture appears, implying that epitaxial growth dominates the crystallization processes. Thermal energy plays an important role in minimizing the difference of interfacial energy along two directions in the anisotropic…
Room-temperature plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition of ZnO: Film growth dependence on the PEALD reactor configuration
Room-temperature plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) of ZnO was studied by depositing the films using diethylzinc and O2 plasma from inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) and capacitively-coupled plasma (CCP) plasma source configurations. The CCP-PEALD was operated using both remote and direct plasma. It was observed that the films deposited by means of remote ICP and CCP were all highly oxygen rich, independently on plasma operation parameters, but impurity (H, C) contents could be reduced by increasing plasma pulse time and applied power. With the direct CCP-PEALD the film composition was closer to stoichiometric, and film crystallinity was enhanced. The ZnO film growth was observe…
High speed microfluidic prototyping by programmable proximity aperture MeV ion beam lithography
Abstract Microfluidics refers to the science and technology for controlling and manipulating fluids that flow along microchannels. For the development of complex prototypes, many microfluidic test structures are required first. Normally, these devices are fabricated via photolithography. This technique requires a photomask for transferring a pattern to photoresists by exposing with UV light. However, this method can be slow when a new structure is required to change. This is because a series of photomasks are needed, which is time consuming and costly. Here, we present a programmable proximity aperture lithography (PPAL) technique for the development of microfluidic prototype in poly(methyl…
Atomic scale surface modification of TiO2 3D nano-arrays: plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of NiO for photocatalysis
Here we report the development of a new scalable and transferable plasma assisted atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process for the production of uniform, conformal and pinhole free NiO with sub-nanometre control on a commercial ALD reactor. In this work we use the readily available nickel precursor nickelocene in conjunction with O2 plasma as a co-reagent (100 W) over a temperature range of 75–325 °C. An optimised growth per cycle of 0.036 nm was obtained at 250 °C with uniform thickness and coverage on scale-up to and including an 6 inch Si wafer (with a 200 nm thermal SiO2 top layer). The bulk characteristics of the NiO thin films were comprehensively interrogated by PXRD, Raman spectrosco…
Antiferromagnetism and p‐type conductivity of nonstoichiometric nickel oxide thin films
Plasma‐enhanced atomic layer deposition was used to grow non‐stoichiometric nickel oxide thin films with low impurity content, high crystalline quality, and p‐type conductivity. Despite the non‐stoichiometry, the films retained the antiferromagnetic property of NiO.
Bandgap lowering in mixed alloys of Cs2Ag(SbxBi1−x)Br6 double perovskite thin films
Halide double perovskites have gained significant attention, owing to their composition of low-toxicity elements, stability in air and long charge-carrier lifetimes. However, most double perovskites, including Cs2AgBiBr6, have wide bandgaps, which limit photo conversion efficiencies. The bandgap can be reduced through hallowing with Sb3+, but Sb-rich alloys are difficult to synthesise due to the high formation energy of Cs2AgSbBr6, which itself has a wide bandgap. We develop a solution-based route to synthesis phase-pure Cs2Ag(SbxBi1-x)Br6 thin films, with the mixing parameter x continuous varying over the entire composition range. We reveal that the mixed alloys (x between 0.5 and 0.9) dem…
Transition-Edge Sensors for Particle Induced X-ray Emission Measurements
In this paper we present a new measurement setup, where a transitionedge sensor detector array is used to detect X-rays in particle induced X-ray emission measurements with a 2 MeV proton beam. Transition-edge sensors offer orders of magnitude improvement in energy resolution compared to conventional silicon or germanium detectors, making it possible to recognize spectral lines in materials analysis that have previously been impossible to resolve, and to get chemical information from the elements. Our sensors are cooled to the operation temperature (65 mK) with a cryogen-free adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator, which houses a specially designed X-ray snout that has a vacuum tight window…
Direct Writing of Channels for Microfluidics in Silica by MeV Ion Beam Lithography
The lithographic exposure characteristic of amorphous silica (SiO2) was investigated for 6.8 MeV16O3+ions. A programmable proximity aperture lithography (PPAL) technique was used for the ion beam exposure. After exposure, the exposed pattern was developed by selective etching in 4% v/v HF. Here, we report on the development of SiO2in term of the etch depth dependence on the ion fluence. This showed an exponential approach towards a constant asymptotic etch depth with increasing ion fluence. An example of microfluidic channels produced by this technique is demonstrated.
The α and γ plasma modes in plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition with O2-N2 capacitive discharges
Two distinguishable plasma modes in the O2–N2 radio frequency capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) used in remote plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) were observed. Optical emission spectroscopy and spectra interpretation with rate coefficient analysis of the relevant processes were used to connect the detected modes to the α and γ modes of the CCP discharge. To investigate the effect of the plasma modes on the PEALD film growth, ZnO and TiO2 films were deposited using both modes and compared to the films deposited using direct plasma. The growth rate, thickness uniformity, elemental composition, and crystallinity of the films were found to correlate with the deposition mode. In re…
Strong absorption and ultrafast localisation in NaBiS2 nanocrystals with slow charge-carrier recombination.
Funder: AiF Project, no: ZIM-KK5085302DF0
Development of a microfluidic design for an automatic lab-on-chip operation
Simple and easy to use are the keys for developing lab-on-chip technology. Here, a new microfluidic circuit has been designed for an automatic lab-on-chip operation (ALOCO) device. This chip used capillary forces for controlled and precise manipulation of liquids, which were loaded in sequence from different flowing directions towards the analysis area. Using the ALOCO design, a non-expert user is able to operate the chip by pipetting liquids into suitable inlet reservoirs. To test this design, microfluidic devices were fabricated using the programmable proximity aperture lithography technique. The operation of the ALOCO chip was characterized from the flow of red-, blue- and un-dyed deioni…
Photo-assisted O− and Al− production with a cesium sputter ion source
It has been recently proposed that the production of negative ions with cesium sputter ion sources could be enhanced by laser-assisted resonant ion pair production. We have tested this hypothesis by measuring the effect of pulsed diode lasers at various wavelengths on the O− and Al− beam current produced from Al2O3 cathode of a cesium sputter ion source. The experimental results provide evidence for the existence of a wavelength-dependent photo-assisted enhancement of negative ion currents but cast doubt on its alleged resonant nature as the effect is observed for both O− and Al− ions at laser energies above a certain threshold. The beam current transients observed during the laser pulses s…
Research data supporting "Antiferromagnetism and p-type conductivity of non-stoichiometric nickel oxide thin films"
Raw data for the manuscript. The dataset contains the files used for the figures and tables in the Article and its Supporting Information. See the Readme file for a detailed description of the dataset.