Amorphisation and surface morphology development at low-energy ion milling

Optimized procedure for conventional TEM sample preparation using birefringence

Specimens for quality transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses must fulfil a range of requirements, which demand high precision during the prior preparation process. In this work, an optimized procedure for conventional TEM specimen preparation is presented that exploits the thickness-dependence of interference colors occurring in birefringent materials. It facilitates the correct estimation of specimen thickness to avoid damage or breaking during mechanical thinning and reduces ion-milling times below 30 min. The benefits of the approach are shown on sapphire and silicon carbide cross-section samples. The presented method is equally suitable for assessing specimen thickness during dimpling and wedge-polishing, and is particularly useful at thicknesses below 20 µm, where the accuracy of mechanical techniques is insufficient. It is precise enough to be employed for a visual thickness estimation during the thinning process, but can be additionally optimized by analyzing the RGB spectrum of the occurring interference colors.

AFM Study of Roughness Development during ToF-SIMS Depth Profiling of Multilayers with a Cs+ Ion Beam in a H2 Atmosphere

The influence of H₂ flooding on the development of surface roughness during time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) depth profiling was studied to evaluate the different aspects of a H₂ atmosphere in comparison to an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) environment. Multilayer samples, consisting of different combinations of metal, metal oxide, and alloy layers of different elements, were bombarded with 1 and 2 keV Cs⁺ ion beams in UHV and a H₂ atmosphere of 7 × 10^-7 mbar. The surface roughness S_a was measured with atomic force microscopy (AFM) on the initial surface and in the craters formed while sputtering, either in the middle of the layers or at the interfaces. We found that the roughness after Cs⁺ sputtering depends on the chemical composition/structure of the individual layers, and it increases with the sputtering depth. However, the increase in the roughness was, in specific cases, approximately a few tens of percent lower when sputtering in the H₂ atmosphere compared to the UHV. In the other cases, the average surface roughness was generally still lower when H₂ flooding was applied, but the differences were statistically insignificant. Additionally, we observed that for the initially rough surfaces with an S_a of about 5 nm, sputtering with the 1 keV Cs⁺ beam might have a smoothing effect, thereby reducing the initial roughness. Our observations also indicate that Cs⁺ sputtering with ion energies of 1 and 2 keV has a similar effect on roughness development, except for the cases with initially very smooth samples. The results show the beneficial effect of H₂ flooding on surface roughness development during the ToF-SIMS depth profiling in addition to a reduction of the matrix effect and an improved identification of thin layers.

The Nature of Ferromagnetism in a System of Self-Ordered α-FeSi2 Nanorods on a Si(111)-4° Vicinal Surface: Experiment and Theory

In this study, the appearance of magnetic moments and ferromagnetism in nanostructures of non-magnetic materials based on silicon and transition metals (such as iron) was considered experimentally and theoretically. An analysis of the related literature shows that for a monolayer iron coating on a vicinal silicon surface with (111) orientation after solid-phase annealing at 450-550 °C, self-ordered two-dimensional islands of α-FeSi₂ displaying superparamagnetic properties are formed. We studied the transition to ferromagnetic properties in a system of α-FeSi₂ nanorods (NRs) in the temperature range of 2-300 K with an increase in the iron coverage to 5.22 monolayers. The structure of the NRs was verified along with distortions in their lattice parameters due to heteroepitaxial growth. The formation of single-domain grains in α-FeSi₂ NRs with a cross-section of 6.6 × 30 nm² was confirmed by low-temperature and field studies and FORC (first-order magnetization reversal curves) diagrams. A mechanism for maintaining ferromagnetic properties is proposed. Ab initio calculations in freestanding α-FeSi₂ nanowires revealed the formation of magnetic moments for some surface Fe atoms only at specific facets. The difference in the averaged magnetic moments between theory and experiments can confirm the presence of possible contributions from defects on the surface of the NRs and in the bulk of the α-FeSi₂ NR crystal lattice. The formed α-FeSi₂ NRs with ferromagnetic properties up to 300 K are crucial for spintronic device development within planar silicon technology.

Large Dense Periodic Arrays of Vertically Aligned Sharp Silicon Nanocones

Convex cylindrical silicon nanostructures, also referred to as silicon nanocones, find their value in many applications ranging from photovoltaics to nanofluidics, nanophotonics, and nanoelectronic applications. To fabricate silicon nanocones, both bottom-up and top-down methods can be used. The top-down method presented in this work relies on pre-shaping of silicon nanowires by ion beam etching followed by self-limited thermal oxidation. The combination of pre-shaping and oxidation obtains high-density, high aspect ratio, periodic, and vertically aligned sharp single-crystalline silicon nanocones at the wafer-scale. The homogeneity of the presented nanocones is unprecedented and may give rise to applications where numerical modeling and experiments are combined without assumptions about morphology of the nanocone. The silicon nanocones are organized in a square periodic lattice, with 250 nm pitch giving arrays containing 1.6 billion structures per square centimeter. The nanocone arrays were several mm² in size and located centimeters apart across a 100-mm-diameter single-crystalline silicon (100) substrate. For single nanocones, tip radii of curvature < 3 nm were measured. The silicon nanocones were vertically aligned, baring a height variation of < 5 nm (< 1%) for seven adjacent nanocones, whereas the height inhomogeneity is < 80 nm (< 16%) across the full wafer scale. The height inhomogeneity can be explained by inhomogeneity present in the radii of the initial columnar polymer mask. The presented method might also be applicable to silicon micro- and nanowires derived through other top-down or bottom-up methods because of the combination of ion beam etching pre-shaping and thermal oxidation sharpening. A novel method is presented where argon ion beam etching and thermal oxidation sharpening are combined to tailor a high-density single-crystalline silicon nanowire array into a vertically aligned single-crystalline silicon nanocones array with < 3 nm apex radius of curvature tips, at the wafer scale.

In-line three-dimensional holography of nanocrystalline objects at atomic resolution

Resolution and sensitivity of the latest generation aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes allow the vast majority of single atoms to be imaged with sub-Ångstrom resolution and their locations determined in an image plane with a precision that exceeds the 1.9-pm wavelength of 300 kV electrons. Such unprecedented performance allows expansion of electron microscopic investigations with atomic resolution into the third dimension. Here we report a general tomographic method to recover the three-dimensional shape of a crystalline particle from high-resolution images of a single projection without the need for sample rotation. The method is compatible with low dose rate electron microscopy, which improves on signal quality, while minimizing electron beam-induced structure modifications even for small particles or surfaces. We apply it to germanium, gold and magnesium oxide particles, and achieve a depth resolution of 1–2 Å, which is smaller than inter-atomic distances.

The resolution of transmission electron microscopes allows the imaging of single atoms and determination of their locations in a plane. Here, the authors present a tomographic method to recover the three-dimensional shape of a crystalline particle without the need for sample rotation.

Combining focused ion beam and atomic layer deposition in nanostructure fabrication

Combining the strengths of atomic layer deposition (ALD) with focused ion beam (FIB) milling provides new opportunities for making 3D nanostructures with flexible choice of materials. Such structures are of interest in prototyping microelectronic and MEMS devices which utilize ALD grown thin films. As-milled silicon structures suffer from segregation and roughening upon heating, however. ALD processes are typically performed at 200-500 °C, which makes thermal stability of the milled structures a critical issue. In this work Si substrates were milled with different gallium ion beam incident angles and then annealed at 250 °C. The amount of implanted gallium was found to rapidly decrease with increasing incident angle with respect of surface normal, which therefore improves the thermal stability of the milled features. 60° incident angle was found as the best compromise with respect to thermal stability and ease of milling. ALD Al2O3 growth at 250 °C on the gallium FIB milled silicon was possible in all cases, even when segregation was taking place. ALD Al2O3 could be used both for creating a chemically uniform surface and for controlled narrowing of FIB milled trenches.

Cross-section metal sample preparations for transmission electron microscopy by electro-deposition and electropolishing

A cross-section sample preparation technique is described for transmission electron microscopy studies of metallic materials. The technique uses jet electro-polishing for the final perforation. Examples are provided of using this technique for copper-support/copper-films/copper-support multilayer structures, grown by electro-deposition. The samples prepared by our current technique are compared with the ones made by ion-milling. The technique is also applicable to materials which are susceptible to ion beam and thermal damages.

Optimization of the preparation of GaN-based specimens with low-energy ion milling for (S)TEM

We report on optimization of electron transparent GaN based specimens for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning TEM (STEM) studies by combining focused ion beam thinning and low-energy (≤500 eV) Ar-ion milling. Energy dependent ion milling effects on GaN based structures are investigated and the quality of ion milled samples is compared with that of specimens prepared by wet chemical etching. Defects formed during ion milling lead to amorphization of the specimen. The experimental results are compared with Monte-Carlo simulations using the SRIM (stopping and range of ions in matter) software. Specimen thickness was deduced from high-angle annular dark field STEM images by normalization of measured intensities with respect to the intensity of the scanning electron probe and comparison with multislice simulations in the frozen lattice approach. The results show that the thickness of the amorphous surface layer can be successfully reduced below 1 nm by low energy ion milling, leading to a homogeneous image contrast in TEM and STEM, so that good conditions for quantitative analysis can be achieved. For an ion energy of 400 eV the thickness measurements resulted in an etching rate of about 6-8 nm/min.

Plan-view preparation of TEM specimens from thin films using adhesive tape

A simple plan-view sample preparation technique for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimens is proposed for thin films by tearing-off the film with adhesive tape. The demand for very thin samples is highest for nanostructured materials where the structure of 2-5 nm sized features (grains) needs to be resolved; therefore, overlapping of nanometer-sized features should be avoided. The method provides thin areas at the fracture edges of plan-view specimens with thickness in the range of the grain size in the film allowing for artifact free high-resolution TEM imaging. Nanostructured materials typically fracture between the grains providing areas with the thickness of the grain size. Besides the swiftness of the method, the samples are free of surface amorphization artifacts, which can occur in ion beam milling up to 1 nm depth even at low energy ion bombardment. The thin film tear-off technique is demonstrated on a CuMn alloy thin film with grain size of 2 nm.

Minimization of amorphous layer in Ar+ ion milling for UHR-EM

We present a comprehensive study on the influence of Ar(+) ion milling parameters in the range of low acceleration voltages (0.5-6 kV) and etching angles (3-10(°)) on the quality of standard high resolution Si TEM samples. The quality was assessed by the evaluation of HR-TEM images acquired from real TEM samples considering the thickness of the amorphous layer and the interlocking between crystalline and amorphous parts of the sample created by ion-beam induced amorphization, as well as topographical BSE-SEM investigation of the surface of those TEM samples. Increasing voltage clearly results in increased amorphous layer thickness as well as interlocking. The impact of the etching angle is less significant but still influences the amorphous layer thickness. It has, however, a strong effect on the preparation time, which is inversely correlated to the etching angle. Finally the experimental data were compared to model estimations by TRIM and the Schuhrke-Winterbon approximation, which fitted well to the experimental data for low voltage and angle, but were less accurate for higher voltage and angle. Despite their limitations, the models could reproduce trend and order of magnitude of the data, thus making them a useful tool for estimating the amorphous layer thickness after TEM sample preparation.

Microscopic study of electrical properties of CrSi2 nanocrystals in silicon

Semiconducting CrSi2 nanocrystallites (NCs) were grown by reactive deposition epitaxy of Cr onto n-type silicon and covered with a 50-nm epitaxial silicon cap. Two types of samples were investigated: in one of them, the NCs were localized near the deposition depth, and in the other they migrated near the surface. The electrical characteristics were investigated in Schottky junctions by current-voltage and capacitance-voltage measurements. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), conductive AFM and scanning probe capacitance microscopy (SCM) were applied to reveal morphology and local electrical properties. The scanning probe methods yielded specific information, and tapping-mode AFM has shown up to 13-nm-high large-area protrusions not seen in the contact-mode AFM. The electrical interaction of the vibrating scanning tip results in virtual deformation of the surface. SCM has revealed NCs deep below the surface not seen by AFM. The electrically active probe yielded significantly better spatial resolution than AFM. The conductive AFM measurements have shown that the Cr-related point defects near the surface are responsible for the leakage of the macroscopic Schottky junctions, and also that NCs near the surface are sensitive to the mechanical and electrical stress induced by the scanning probe.

Transmission Electron Microscopy of Semiconductor Based Products

The demand for increasingly higher performance semiconductor products has stimulated the semiconductor industry to respond by producing devices with increasingly complex circuitry, more transistors in less space, more layers of metal, dielectric and interconnects, more interfaces, and a manufacturing process with nearly 1,000 steps. As all device features are shrunk in the quest for higher performance, the role of Transmission Electron Microscopy as a characterization tool takes on a continually increasing importance over older, lower-resolution characterization tools, such as SEM. The Ångstrom scale imaging resolution and nanometer scale chemical analysis and diffraction resolution provided by modem TEM's are particularly well suited for solving materials problems encountered during research, development, production engineering, reliability testing, and failure analysis. A critical enabling technology for the application of TEM to semiconductor based products as the feature size shrinks below a quarter micron is advances in specimen preparation. The traditional 1,000Å thick specimen will be unsatisfactory in a growing number of applications. It can be shown using a simple geometrical model, that the thickness of TEM specimens must shrink as the square root of the feature size reduction. Moreover, the center-targeting of these specimens must improve so that the centertargeting error shrinks linearly with the feature size reduction. To meet these challenges, control of the specimen preparation process will require a new generation of polishing and ion milling tools that make use of high resolution imaging to control the ion milling process. In addition, as the TEM specimen thickness shrinks, the thickness of surface amorphization produced must also be reduced. Gallium focused ion beam systems can produce hundreds of Ångstroms of amorphised surface silicon, an amount which can consume an entire thin specimen. This limitation to FIB milling requires a method of removal of amorphised material that leaves no artifact in the remaining material.

Preparation of thin ceramic monofilaments for TEM observation with novel embedding processes

An applicable method to prepare transmission electron microscopy specimens from ceramic fibers for longitudinal and cross-sectional observations is investigated. The method includes novel embedding processes to fix fibers, a polishing process using a self-manufactured device to get uniformly low thickness (40 μm for L-fiber, 60 μm for C-fiber), a one-side dimpling process to grind the specimen to near electron transparency (about 5 μm in thickness for both L-fiber and C-fiber) and an efficient ion milling process using calculated parameters. These techniques are reliable to accomplish the preparation with high quality in a relatively short time. Many factors related to the preparation processes are discussed.

Chemical polishing method of GaAs specimens for transmission electron microscopy

A practical method for transmission electron microscopy specimen preparation of GaAs-based materials with quantum dot structures is presented to show that high-quality image observations in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) can be effectively obtained. Specimens were prepared in plan-view and cross-section using ion milling, followed by two-steps chemical fine polishing with an ammonia solution (NH(4)OH) and a dilute H(2)SO(4) solution. Measurements of electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) proved that clean and flat specimens can be obtained without chemical residues. HRTEM images show that the amorphous regions of carbon and GaAs can be significantly reduced to enhance the contrast of lattice images of GaAs-based quantum structure.

Measurement and estimation of temperature rise in TEM sample during ion milling

The actual temperature rise was measured during ion-milling process used in the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation. Special probes were fabricated for the measurements, one with shielded, floating thermocouple mounted onto a 3mm grid to compute the thermal load at the sample, and the other, a bare probe with a polymer coating to measure the maximum temperature attained. The temperature measured in the most commonly used ion-milling system reached up to 295 degrees C when the typical milling conditions, 6keV ion-energy and an incident angle of 80 degrees, were used. Based on the temperature profiles that were obtained by the shielded probe, two unknown parameters, the amount of heat deposited by the energetic ions/neutrals to the sample and the thermal conductivities between the materials, were estimated and used to compute the temperature rise in commonly adopted materials. The calculation showed that the temperature of the glass sample reached more than 300 degrees C under typical ion-milling conditions. The calculated value was confirmed with the experimental result of the crystallization of an amorphous Si on the glass under the typical ion-milling condition, which gave the same extent as annealing at 350 degrees C.

Effective removal of Ga residue from focused ion beam using a plasma cleaner

Samples prepared using the focused ion beam (FIB) inevitably contain the surface damage induced by energetic Ga+ ions. An effective method of removing the surface damage is demonstrated using a plasma cleaner, a device which is widely used to minimize the surface contamination in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Surface bombardment with low-energy Ar+ ions was induced by biasing the sample immersed in the plasma source, so as to etch off the surface materials. The etch rates of SiO2, measured with a bias voltage of 100-300 V, were found to vary linearly with both the time and bias and were able to be controlled from 1.4 to 9 nm/min. The removal of the Ga residue was confirmed using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) after the plasma processing of the FIB-prepared sample. When the FIB-prepared sample was processed via plasma etching for 10 min with a bias of 150 V, the surface Ga damage was completely removed.

Successful application of spatial difference technique to electron energy-loss spectroscopy studies of Mo/SrTiO3 interfaces

The electron energy-loss near-edge structure (ELNES) of Mo/SrTiO3 interfaces has been studied using high spatial resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope. Thin films of Mo with a thickness of 50 nm were grown on (001)-orientated SrTiO3 surfaces by molecular beam epitaxy at 600 degrees C. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed that the interfaces were atomically abrupt with the (110)Mo plane parallel to the substrate surface. Ti-L2,3 ( approximately 460 eV), O-K ( approximately 530 eV), Sr-L2,3 ( approximately 1950 eV) and Mo-L2,3 ( approximately 2500 eV) absorption edges were acquired by using the Gatan Enfina parallel EELS system with a CCD detector. The interface-specific components of the ELNES were extracted by employing the spatial difference method. The interfacial Ti-L2,3 edge shifted to lower energy values and the splitting due to crystal field became less pronounced compared to bulk SrTiO3, which indicated that the Ti atoms at the interface were in a reduced oxidation state and that the symmetry of the TiO6 octahedra was disturbed. No interfacial Sr-L2,3 edge was observed, which may demonstrate that Sr atoms do not participate in the interfacial bonding. An evident interface-specific O-K edge was found, which differs from that of the bulk in both position (0.8 +/- 0.2 eV positive shift) and shape. In addition, a positive shift (0.9 +/- 0.3 eV) occurred for the interfacial Mo-L2,3, revealing an oxidized state of Mo at the interface. Our results indicated that at the interface SrTiO3 was terminated with TiO2. The validity of the spatial difference technique is discussed and examined by introducing subchannel drift intentionally.

Imaging of fullerene-like structures in CNx thin films by electron microscopy; sample preparation artefacts due to ion-beam milling

The microstructure of CN(x) thin films, deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering, was investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at 200kV in plan-view and cross-sectional samples. Imaging artefacts arise in high-resolution TEM due to overlap of nm-sized fullerene-like features for specimen thickness above 5nm. The thinnest and apparently artefact-free areas were obtained at the fracture edges of plan-view specimens floated-off from NaCl substrates. Cross-sectional samples were prepared by ion-beam milling at low energy to minimize sample preparation artefacts. The depth of the ion-bombardment-induced surface amorphization was determined by TEM cross sections of ion-milled fullerene-like CN(x) surfaces. The thickness of the damaged surface layer at 5 degrees grazing incidence was 13 and 10nm at 3 and 0.8keV, respectively, which is approximately three times larger than that observed on Si prepared under the same conditions. The shallowest damage depth, observed for 0.25keV, was less than 1nm. Chemical changes due to N loss and graphitization were also observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As a consequence of chemical effects, sputtering rates of CN(x) films were similar to that of Si, which enables relatively fast ion-milling procedure compared to carbon compounds. No electron beam damage of fullerene-like CN(x) was observed at 200kV.

Surface damage formation during ion-beam thinning of samples for transmission electron microscopy

All techniques employed in the preparation of samples for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) introduce or include artifacts that can degrade the images of the materials being studied. One significant cause of this image degradation is surface amorphization. The damaged top and bottom surface layers of TEM samples can obscure subtle detail, particularly at high magnification. Of the techniques typically used for TEM sample preparation of semiconducting materials, cleaving produces samples with the least surface amorphization, followed by low-angle ion milling, conventional ion milling, and focused ion beam (FIB) preparation. In this work, we present direct measurements of surface damage on silicon produced during TEM sample preparation utilizing these techniques. The thinnest damaged layer formed on a silicon surface was measured as 1.5 nm thick, while an optimized FIB sample preparation process results in the formation of a 22 nm thick damaged layer. Lattice images are obtainable from all samples.