Formation of microscale and nanoscale structures on surface irradiated with energetic beams

Abstract

Very small (microscale or nanoscale) structures, which are the building blocks of future technologies, are very difficult to fabricate by conventional materials processing methods. The project aimed to explore use of energetic beams, mainly focused ion beam (FIB), as a tool to produce microscale and nanoscale periodic structures. A wide range of materials, including pure metals (Sn and Ti), thin film (ZnO) and semiconductors (Si, InP and GaAs), were studied in order to gain a good understanding of ion-solid interactions during fabrication using FIB.