Search

A new experimental technique to measure stopping forces for swift heavy ions was tested and has been found effective. A commercial PIN photodiode was coated with a patterned stopping medium of gold. This allowed the simultaneous detection of stopped- and reference-ions of C-14 and N-14 in the energy range E = 6.4-10.4 MeV. The stopping forces of these ions in gold have been measured with excellent accuracy. They are up to 10% larger than expected from present tabulations. It would be straightforward to use the same modified PIN diode in other experiments providing direct comparisons for an identical stopping medium.

We report a novel a lift-off method for nanoimprint lithography. This is a bi-layer method, using a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) on lift-off layer (LOL) resist scheme. For the imprint step, direct evidence for good pattern transfer down to 20 nm is shown. Oxygen plasma ashing is required to remove residual PMMA. A liquid solvent, MF 319, is used to transfer the pattern down to the silicon. The LOL is dissolved isotropically while the PMMA is unaffected. Ashing time can kept to a minimum through the wet etch method. This reduces the line widening effect. After metal evaporation a two-step lift-off process prevents metal flakes from adhering to the surface electrostatically. At first warm acetone breakes apart the metal layer and dissolves the PMMA, then warm Remover S-1165 removes the LOL and remaining metal. Structures of lines down to 50 mn and dots with a diameter of sub 20 nm are presented.

We present processing technology based on nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and wet etching for fabrication of GaInAs/InP three-terminal ballistic junction (TBJ) devices. To transfer sub-100 nm features into a high-mobility InP-based 2DEG material, we used SiO2/Si stamps made with electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching. After the NIL, the resist residues are removed in oxygen plasma followed by wet etching of GaInAs/InP to define the TBJ-structures. Fabricated TBJ-devices are characterized using scanning electron microscopy and electron transport measurements. Highly non-linear electrical characteristics of the TBJ structures are demonstrated and compared with E-beam defined devices.

The smaller the features on the stamp the more important are the interactions between stamp and polymer layer. A stamp rich in small structures will effectively show a surface area enlargement, which generally leads to adhesion of the polymer to the stamp. This makes a subsequent imprint impossible without troublesome and time-consuming cleaning. The anti-adhesion properties of Si- or SiO2-based stamps can be improved by binding fluorinated silanes covalently to the surface. In this paper, we demonstrate that the deposition procedure as well as the environment during deposition are important with respect to the quality and performance of the molecular layer. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Si 3 N 4 / Si (1 0 0), SiO 2 / Si (1 0 0) and SiO 2 / Si (1 1 1) wafers were implanted by keV Co ions under technical conditions to form thin silicide surface films. A metal vapour vacuum arc (MEVVA) source was employed to produce a high fluence of Co ions that was just sufficient to remove the oxide/nitride overlayer by sputter erosion. This high-fluence implantation under technical vacuum introduces foreign atoms into the implanted layer. The behaviour of these impurities following ∼900°C heat treatment in a N2 atmosphere has been studied. Elemental redistributions, crystal recovery, phase formation and electric properties were analysed. The results show that the annealing leads to an increase in crystal ordering within the implanted layer and stable phase formation, as indicated by a reduction in the channeling signal and a decrease in electrical resistivity. In the case of nitride-coated samples, the heat treatment leads to a reduction in the residual carbon and nitrogen in the samples, while the oxygen content is largely unchanged. In contrast, a remarkable increase in the carbon and especially the oxygen contents is observed in the case of the samples with oxide overlayers, and the Co shows a tendency to spread to greater depths.

In order to fabricate and characterise nanometer structures, silicon wafers were implanted with masks ranging from several μm down to 200 nm in lateral dimensions. The masks were produced by an electron beam lithography, metal deposition and metal lift-off sequence. 10 keV 75 As + -ions were implanted to a fluence of 2.5×10 14 cm −2 to create nanometer-sized doped and undoped volumes. Characterisation of the ion-implanted patterns was carried out by etching away the metal masks and subsequently using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) images of the patterns. The simultaneous AFM and SCM measurements gave sharp contrasts between implanted and unimplanted regions, showing highly resistive swelled structures. The swelling also showed structure with a concave shape for implanted regions and a convex shape for unimplanted regions, which is most probably a result of damage evolution from the implantation.

A complete nanobiosensor structure consisting of a 200 @mm x 200 @mm area containing 100 nm sized interdigitated nanoelectrodes with varied interelectrode distances has been fabricated using nanoimprint lithography (NIL) in combination with UV-lithography. The complete structure has been characterized with admittance spectroscopy. In the paper are discussed the needs and key issues for nanosensors and the capability offered by using NIL for fabrication of such sensors.

The partial sputtering yields of different species from silicon dioxide/Si and silicon nitride/Si during high-fluence keV Co Metal Vapour Vacuum Arc (MEVVA) irradiation are of importance for both silicide formation and interpretation of sputter profiling. Three sets of samples, nitride/Si(1 0 0), oxide/Si(1 0 0) and oxide/Si(1 1 1), have been bombarded to different normal fluences, Θ, from 1 × 1016 to 2.6 × 1018 ions cm−2. The partial sputtering yields for N and Si in the thick nitride films are ∼1.0 and ∼0.65, respectively, which indicates that the relative sputtering ratio of N/Si is ∼1.5. The partial sputtering yields for O and Si of oxide/Si(1 0 0) samples are determined as ∼1.0 and ∼0.3, respectively. Although the O and Si sputtering yields from oxide/Si(1 1 1) samples are ∼15% higher, the average sputtering ratio of O/Si is ∼3.4, the same for both sets of oxide/Si samples. As expected, the partial sputtering yield of Co, YCo(Θ), is small for low fluence implantation and increases with increasing Co fluence. At a normal fluence of ∼5 × 1017 ions cm−2, YCo(Θ) reaches the high fluence quasi-equilibrium limit, the value is very close to unity. The sputtering yield of Co reduces slightly at even higher fluences, which is associated with erosion of the sample surface.

Essentially all approaches to artificial molecular motors rely on diffusional stepping, i.e. the free energy input that powers the motor is used to rectify thermal motion. However, many models for biological motors, e.g. myosins or kinesins, include directed motion due to a “power stroke”. In this project we are employing a bottom-up approach to developing a relatively simple experimental model system, the “Inchworm”, with the intention to create the first artificial motor with a power stroke. Specifically, the Inchworm consists of a stretch of DNA confined inside a nanochannel, with ligand-gated repressor proteins immobilized on the nanochannel walls. By cyclically stretching and contracting the Inchworm DNA, via changes in buffer ionic strength, and simultaneously externally controlling the DNA repressor proteins’ binding and unbinding states, the motor is designed to achieve processive and unidirectional motion along the nanochannel. Here we report the status of this project: we have constructed the Inchworm DNA, expressed the ligand-gated repressor proteins and tested their specificity. In addition, we have developed a protocol for immobilization of the repressor proteins to the nanochannel walls and produced nanochannels (100-200 nm) in quartz, which can be interfaced with preexisting micro-fluidic systems.Acknowledgment: This work was supported by MONAD, HFSP, the Swedish Research Council and nmC@LU.