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The artificial creation of shallow nitrogen‐vacancy (NV) centres in diamond with 25 nm lateral resolution is performed by collimated implantation of low‐energy nitrogen ions. The electron spin associated to this defect is the most promising qubit for a scalable quantum computer working at room temperature. Individual optical addressing of two single centres separated by only 16 nm is demonstrated with stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy.

The process of pattern transfer of desired topological features into silicon plays a critical role for the production of microelectronic and photonic devices, and micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems. Any deviation from the desired shape of the pattern limits density, yield, and reliability of these devices. Gas reactivity, pressure, ion, electron, and reactant transport to the surface, and product transport away from the surface, have all been identified as important issues that control the microscopic uniformity in high aspect ratio etching. When etch-inhibiting chemistry by the gas chopping deep reactive ion etching (RIE) was employed, it caused enormous complications in the scaling of etching rates, with increasing aspect ratio. Using an energy-resolving quadrupole mass spectrometer assembled into the cathode, specially designed test features, and etching simulation models, we establish the link between etch process parameters such as pressure, rf power, etching gas chemistry, temperature, and the physical and chemical process parameters like energy and angular distribution of ions and neutrals, radical sticking, and surface charging. The most significant effects like RIE lag, notching, bowing, faceting, microtrenching, profile shape dependence, etc. will be discussed in this article. 2003 American Vacuum Society.

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Articles you may be interested inIntegration of field emitters into scanning probe microscopy sensors using focused ion and electron beams Novel laser flash technique to measure thermal effusivity of highly viscous liquids at high temperature Rev.Scanning thermal microscopy is a scanning proximal probe technique, which can be used for mapping spatial variation of thermal properties of a surface such as temperature, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity. The sensor presented here is a resistance based probe consisting of a nanometer-sized filament formed at the end of a piezoresistive atomic force microscope type cantilever. The freestanding filament is deposited by focused electron beam deposition using methylcyclopentadienyl trimethyl platinum as a precursor gas. The filament height is in the range of 2-5 m, with typical ''wire'' diameters between 30 and 100 nm. Typical deposition times are between 2 and 5 min, and might be further shortened by optimizing the precursor gas flux. Because of its small size, the new probe has a high spatial resolution ͑Ͻ20 nm tip end radius͒ and, due to the low thermal mass, a high thermal sensitivity and fast response time. In this article, experiments designed to characterize the mechanical stability and electrical and thermal properties of the nanometer-sized probe are presented.

We propose a method for deterministic implantation of single atoms into solids which relies on a linear ion trap as an ion source. Our approach allows a deterministic control of the number of implanted atoms and a spatial resolution of less than 1 nm. Furthermore, the method is expected to work for almost all chemical elements. The deterministic implantation of single phosphor or nitrogen atoms is interesting for the fabrication of scalable solid state quantum computers, in particular for silicon and diamond based schemes. A wide range of further applications is expected for the fabrication of nano and sub-nano electronic devices.

This article describes microprobes for noncontact scanning force microscopy that make use of a direct-oscillating thermally driven bimorph actuator with integrated piezoresistive readout sensor. The sensitivity has been increased using direct current for biasing and alternating current for exciting the thermally driven cantilever in a higher flexural mode. The cantilever operates in the phase-shift atomic force microscopy (AFM) detection technique. The main advantage of phase imaging is the higher z resolution at high scan rates and much lower forces than in height imaging with contact AFM. Critical dimensions measurements illustrating the imaging capability and resolution of our new scanning proximal probe are demonstrated.