Electric field induced patterning in Cr film under ambient conditions: A chemical reaction based perspective

Kumar, Swarun; Suresh, Hasika; Sethuraman, Vijay A.; Kumar, Praveen; Pratap, Rudra

doi:10.1007/s42452-020-03796-7

Cited by 10 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…There are various fundamental aspects that make W-ELG a unique problem solver. The chemical compound formed on the surface of Cr is CrO 3 , which readily dissolves in water during the pattern drawing . Hence, unlike other such chemical reaction-based SPL processes, the reaction product neither stays in the reaction zone nor sticks to the tip during W-ELG.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The chemical compound formed on the surface of Cr is CrO 3 , which readily dissolves in water during the pattern drawing. 30 Hence, unlike other such chemical reaction-based SPL processes, the reaction product neither stays in the reaction zone nor sticks to the tip during W-ELG. Therefore, W-ELG does not suffer from the issue of debris accumulation and produces clean patterns.…”

Section: Outlook Of W-elgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), there are a few innate obstructions that hamper the acceptance of the SPL as a substitute for EBL and photolithography for commercial purposes. Some of these are tip and sample damage due to the high friction, , accumulation of the reaction product in and near the patterned trench as well as the tip (see Figure ) that affects the quality and repeatability of the patterns, low throughput as the tip velocity cannot be increased arbitrarily fast without compromising the time required for completing tip-sample interaction, etc. Figure a shows an AFM probe before pattern drawing in a Cr film in contact mode using ELG.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subsequently, a potential difference (e.g., 10 V in the case shown in Figure 2) is applied between the two electrodes, and a vigorous chemical reaction, distinctively marked by effervescing gas bubbles emanating near the cathode, is observed (see Video S1). The color of the "water" droplet becomes yellowish due to the dissolution of the new chemical compound (CrO 3 ) 30 formed due to the chemical reaction between Cr and oxygen, which is present at the anode (i.e., near Cr film, which is one of the reactants) due to the electrolysis of the water. In practice, due to the high solubility of CrO 3 in water, the reaction product is completely removed from the region below the cathode tip; this is confirmed via a series of characterizations performed using an optical microscope, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and an AFM (see Figure 2b,c).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and a potential difference is applied between the electrodes. Upon application of an electric potential, the Cr film below the cathode reacts with water vapor present in the ambient to form CrO 3 . The reaction zone moves away from the cathode in a radially symmetric fashion.…”

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Introducing Water Electrolithography

et al. 2021

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High-resolution patterning with remarkable customizability has stimulated the invention of numerous scanning probe lithography (SPL) techniques. However, frequent tip damage, substrate-film deterioration, low throughput, and debris amassing in the patterned region are the inherent impediments that have precluded obtaining patterns with high repeatability using SPL. Hence, SPL still has not got wider acceptance for industrial fabrication and technological applications. Here, we introduce a novel SPL technique, named water electrolithography (W-ELG), for patterning at the microscale and potentially at the nanoscale also. The technique operates in the non-contact mode and is based on the selective etching, via an electrochemical process, of a metallic film (e.g., Cr) submerged into water. Here, the working of W-ELG is demonstrated by scribing a pattern into the Cr film by a traversing cathode tip along a preset locus. A numerical analysis establishing the working principles and optimization strategies of W-ELG is also presented. The tip-sample distance and tip-diameter are identified as the critical parameters controlling the pattern creation. W-ELG achieved a throughput of 1.5 × 107 μm2/h, which is the highest among the existing SPL techniques, while drawing 4 μm wide lines, and is also immune to deleterious issues of tip damage, debris amassment, etc. Therefore, the resolution of these inherent impediments of SPL in W-ELG sets the stage for a paradigm shift that may now translate the SPL from academic exploration to industrial fabrications.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Outlook Of W-elgmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Introducing Water Electrolithography

et al. 2021

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Kinematics and kinetics of alternating electric field induced liquid mass transport on chromium thin films

et al. 2021

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Long range mass transport driven by an electric field has many applications in the fields of nanoscience and technology. Liquid-phase mass transport ranging from the micrometer to the millimeter scale and its application to nanopatterning have been demonstrated on chromium (Cr) thin films using a DC electric field. Under the influence of an electric field, the metal seems to undergo a chemical reaction, and the resulting liquid material flows out radially in all directions. In this study, we have explored the effect of an alternating (AC) electric field on this kind of liquid-phase material transport. Within the scope of this work, mass transport has been studied on Cr films 30 nm thick using an alternating square waveform with frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 1000 Hz in steps of 50 Hz. The dependence of the material’s formation, flow distance, and flow velocity on frequency, for a constant applied root mean square (RMS) voltage, was studied in detail. An analytical model is presented to explain the experimental results. This study, in particular the frequency parameter and the intermittent nature of the applied bias, will help us get a better control over the mass flow process, will lead to better resolutions for the electrolithography process.

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Humidity- tunable liquefaction of Cr thin-film and its application to patterning

Ghosh¹,

Talukder²

2022

Nanotechnology

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Electric field induced liquefaction of chromium (Cr) thin-films, being a surface-based process, is affected by the moisture content in the surroundings. The said process is an electrochemical reaction, which takes place on an electrically stressed Cr thin-film. The reaction results in a liquid region, which flows out radially from the tip of the cathode. A proper understanding of the phenomenon is warranted as it is applied for performing a nanolithography process, electrolithography (ELG). In this study we have focused on the effect of relative humidity (RH) on the material formation and transport on electrically stressed Cr thin-film. Varying the RH over a wide range, the phenomenon is studied using different levels of DC stress. The effect of the applied DC stress coupled with varying levels of RH showed trends which are explained qualitatively and quantitatively. The results indicate that RH could be a pivotal parameter affecting the above-mentioned phenomenon on electrically stressed Cr thin-films and could significantly alter the minimum feature size attainable by ELG. To demonstrate the effect of RH on ELG, lines were drawn at various humidity levels resulting in greater than 100% increase in the attainable line width when RH was increased by about 40%.

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Electric field induced patterning in Cr film under ambient conditions: A chemical reaction based perspective

Cited by 10 publications

References 19 publications

Introducing Water Electrolithography

Introducing Water Electrolithography

Kinematics and kinetics of alternating electric field induced liquid mass transport on chromium thin films

Humidity- tunable liquefaction of Cr thin-film and its application to patterning

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