Review on FIB-Induced Damage in Diamond Materials

Abstract

Background: Although various advanced FIB processing methods for the fabrication of 3D nanostructures have been successfully developed by many researchers, the FIB milling has an unavoidable result in terms of the implantation of ion source materials and the formation of damaged layer at the near surface. Understanding the ion-solid interactions physics provides a unique way to control the FIB produced defects in terms of their shape and location. Methods:We have carefully selected peer-reviewed papers which mainly focusing on the review questions of this paper. A deductive content analysis method was used to analyse the methods, findings and conclusions of these papers. Based on their research methods, we classify their works in different groups. The theory of ion-matter interaction and the previous investigation on ion-induced damage in diamond were reviewed and discussed. Results:The previous research work has provided a systematic analysis of ion-induced damage in diamond. Both experimental and simulation methods have been developed to understand the damage process. The damaged layers created in FIB processing process can significantly degrade/alter the device performance and limit the applications of FIB nanofabrication technique. There are still challenges involved in fabricating large, flat, and uniform TEM samples in undoped non-conductive diamond. Conclusions:The post-facto-observation leaves a gap in understanding the formation process of ion-induced damage, forcing the use of assumptions. In contrast, MD simulations of ion bombardment have shed much light on ion beam mixing for decades. These activities make it an interesting and important task to understand what the fundamental effects of energetic particles on matter are.

MD simulation study on defect evolution and doping efficiency of p-type doping of 3C-SiC by Al ion implantation with subsequent annealing

“…In the process of high-energy ion implantation, the mechanisms for dissipating energy of an energetic incident ion can be divided into three categories, namely, nuclear stopping corresponding to elastic collisions, electronic stopping corresponding to inelastic collisions, and charge exchange process. Since the charge exchange loss only accounts for a small part of the total energy loss of low-charge ions, it can be ignored [47]. Although for the simulations in this work (i.e., incident particle energies from 350 eV to 5 keV) nuclear stopping dominates for each implanted ion which can be confirmed using the stopping and range of ions in matter (SRIM) code [48], while the accumulated error due to the neglect of electronic stopping will become larger as the number of ions increases.…”

Building Blocks for Quantum Network Based on Group‐IV Split‐Vacancy Centers in Diamond

“…Alternatively, single SiV − centers can be deterministically created and placed in a nanophotonic cavity by using focused ion beam implantation followed by a high‐temperature annealing . The precision of this technique is about 32 nm for lateral positioning and 50 nm in depth targeting, which is accurate enough to establish strong coupling between the quantum emitter and the optical cavity .…”

Comparing Xe+pFIB and Ga+FIB for TEM sample preparation of Al alloys: Minimising FIB‐induced artefacts

“…Conventional Ga + FIB processing is known to produce defects caused by the interaction of energetic Ga + ions with the sample, 2–4 for example, amorphisation of Si and diamond during Ga + FIB milling, 5–7 phase changes observed in austenitic stainless steels, 8 hydrides in Zr TEM samples, 9 and Cu 3 Ga intermetallic phase (under normal incidence) in nanograin Cu samples 10,3 . During Ga + FIB milling of Al, implanted Ga tends to decorate the grain boundaries (GBs) and this may induce misleading or incorrect results for segregation studies 11 .…”