Fabrication and characterization of micromechanical bridges with strain sensors deposited using focused electron beam induced technology

Focused electron beam induced deposition meets materials science

“…chanical SiN x bridges [22]. By stress distribution modification employing FIB milling they could increase the deflection detection sensitivity even further.…”

“…The possibility to finely tune the inter-granular coupling strength of nanogranular Pt by post-growth electron irradiation (see section 6.1) allows for the optimization of the strain sensor's signal-to-noise ratio which is mandatory for its use in such demanding applications as AFM with self-sensing cantilevers, see [21] for details. In very recent work Mocza la and collaborators used the same nano-granular Pt FEBID structures as deflection sensing elements and applied them to read out the resonance frequency of micromechanical SiN x bridges [22]. By stress distribution modification employing FIB milling they could increase the deflection detection sensitivity even further.…”

“…These comprise amorphous and polycrystalline superconductors [5,6,7], magnetic materials [8], alloys and intermetallic compounds [9,10,11,12,13,14,15], multilayer structures [15,16] and metamaterials in which suitable materials combinations result in a desired functionality [17,8]. The latter approach, in particular, has opened a new pathway to the realization of different sensor applications [18,19,20,21,22].…”

In situ real-time annealing of ultrathin vertical Fe nanowires grown by focused electron beam induced deposition

“…The decomposition of a precursor gas adsorbed on the substrate surface by an accurately-directed electron beam enables the deposition of metallic [6], magnetic [7], insulating [8] and superconducting [9] materials only in the areas scanned by the beam. This outstanding versatility yields a broad spectrum of applications, covering circuit edit and mask repair [10], micro-and nanocontacting [11], photodetection [12], nano-sensing [13], magnetomechanical actuation systems [14], plasmonics [15], etc. However, the proper operation of such devices can be compromised when the functional properties of the nanostructures are not ideally tuned.…”

Comparison between Focused Electron/Ion Beam-Induced Deposition at Room Temperature and under Cryogenic Conditions

“…In Figure 1, various applications of FEBID and FIBID are sketched: the growth of in-plane and three-dimensional nanostructures on flat substrates [25], as well as on unconventional substrates such as cantilevers/tips [26], and flexible [27], insulating [28] or origami substrates [28], etc. Materials grown by FEBID/FIBID are currently used for circuit edit and mask repair in the semiconductor industry [24,[29][30][31], lamellae preparation [7], the placement of electrical contacts to micro-and nano-structures [32,33], for producing sensors [34,35] and magnetic tips [36][37][38], plasmonic [39][40][41][42] and nano-optical elements [43], superconducting films [44] and nanowires [45], etc. Although FEBID/FIBID is an active field of research and development, a wider impact is hampered by the limited process speed.…”