Focused electron beam induced etching of titanium with XeF₂

Abstract

Titanium is a relevant technological material due to its extraordinary mechanical and biocompatible properties, its nanopatterning being an increasingly important requirement in many applications. We report the successful nanopatterning of titanium by means of focused electron beam induced etching using XeF2 as a precursor gas. Etch rates up to 1.25 × 10 − 3 µm3 s − 1 and minimum pattern sizes of 80 nm were obtained. Different etching parameters such as beam current, beam energy, dwell time and pixel spacing are systematically investigated, the etching process being optimized by decreasing both the beam current and the beam energy. The etching mechanism is investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Potential applications in nanotechnology are discussed.

Pulsed Laser-Assisted Focused Electron-Beam-Induced Etching of Titanium with XeF2: Enhanced Reaction Rate and Precursor Transport

“…While initially we believed this mechanism could also be operative, a study at higher current revealed that, similar to the EBIE process demonstrated in Figure 2(e) and (f), the LABIE process was also arrested in the scanned beam area for the laser conditions studied (see Supporting Information). As suggested above, the high-current zero EBIE etch rate is consistent with the subsequent electron stimulated reaction TiF 4 + e − → TiF 3 + F; this is consistent with De Teresa's highcurrent results 16 as well as our previous experimental and simulation study of SiO 2 etching. 4 The high-current LABIE results suggest that the resultant TiF 3 forms a passivating film, which also retards the laser assist process.…”

Tungsten Diselenide Patterning and Nanoribbon Formation by Gas‐Assisted Focused‐Helium‐Ion‐Beam‐Induced Etching

“…Furthermore, if the byproduct residence time is long, the He + beam can cause re‐dissociation of the WF 6 and SeF 6 species which further reduces the etch rate . By contrast, if the He + dwell time is relatively short, and XeF 2 coverage high, the etching regime operates in a reaction‐rate‐limited (RRL) regime . Figure b,c shows patterns etched into the WSe 2 using the gas‐assisted FIBIE process as a function of dose, with a 30 µs and 100 ns He + dwell time, respectively.…”

Advances in gas-mediated electron beam-induced etching and related material processing techniques

“…The technique is analogous to focused ion beam processing [6][7][8][9][10][11], but avoids damage, staining and redeposition artifacts caused by ion bombardment. EBIE is realized using gaseous precursors such as H 2 O, O 2 , NH 3 , XeF 2 , Cl 2 and SF 6 , which have been used to volatilize a wide range of materials, including graphene [12], single [13] and multi-walled [14] C nanotubes, amorphous carbon [15][16][17][18], single crystal [19][20][21][22] and nano-crystalline [23] diamond, Si, SiO 2 , Si 3 N 4 , Cr, Ti, TaN and photoresist [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Historical overviews and reviews of the EBIE technique and the underlying chemical pathways can be found in references [1][2][3][4][5].…”