Hardness, Young’s Modulus and Elastic Recovery in Magnetron Sputtered Amorphous AlMgB14 Films

We report optical and mechanical properties of hard aluminum magnesium boride films magnetron sputtered from a stoichiometric AlMgB14 ceramic target onto Corning® 1737 Glass and Si (100) wafers. High target sputtering rf-power and sufficiently short target-to-substrate distance appeared to be critical processing conditions. Amorphous AlMgB14 films demonstrate very strong indentation size effect (ISE): exceptionally high nanohardness H = 88 GPa and elastic Young’s modulus E* = 517 GPa at 26 nm of the diamond probe penetration depth and almost constant values, respectively, of about 35 GPa and 275 GPa starting at depths of about 2–3% of films’ thickness. For comparative analysis of elastic strain to failure index H/E*, resistance to plastic deformation ratio H3/E*2 and elastic recovery ratio We were obtained in nanoindentation tests performed in a wide range of loading forces from 0.5 to 40 mN. High authentic numerical values of H = 50 GPa and E* = 340 GPa correlate with as low as only 10% of total energy dissipating through the plastic deformations.

Mechanical Nano-Patterning: Toward Highly-Aligned Ge Self-Assembly on Low Lattice Mismatched GaAs Substrate

Low-dimensional semiconductor structurers formed on a substrate surface at pre-defined locations and with nano-precision placement is of vital interest. The potential of tailoring their electrical and optical properties will revolutionize the next generation of optoelectronic devices. Traditionally, highly aligned self-assembly of semiconductors relies on Stranski- Krastanov growth mode. In this work, we demonstrate a pathway towards ordered configuration of Ge islands on low lattice mismatch GaAs (110) substrate patterned using depth-controlled nanoindentation. Diamond probe tips with different geometries are used to nano-mechanically stamp the surface of GaAs (110). This creates nanoscale volumes of dislocation-mediated deformation which acts to bias nucleation. Results show that nanostamped GaAs exhibits selective-nucleation of Ge at the indent sites. Ge islands formed on a surface patterned using cube corner tip have height of ~10 nm and lateral size of ~225 nm. Larger islands are formed by using Vickers and Berkovich diamond tips (~400 nm). The strain state of the patterned structures is characterized by micro-Raman spectroscopy. A strain value up to 2% for all tip geometries has been obtained. Additionally, strong room temperature photoluminescence (PL) emission is observed around 1.9 µm (650 meV). The observed strain-induced enhancement in the light-emission efficiency is attributed to direct conduction to heavy-hole (cΓ-HH) and conduction to light-hole (cΓ-LH) transitions. The inherent simplicity of the proposed method offers an attractive technique to manufacture semiconductor quantum dot structures for future electronic and photonic applications.

Tanzania diamond probe presages new mining disputes

Headline TANZANIA: Diamond probe presages new mining disputes

Diamond Probe Applications for Nanoprobing

As technology continues to scale down, semiconductor devices and circuitry have become more complex. The layouts are more integrated and the devices do not isolate at contact level like they used to. Due to this, nanoprobing cannot always localize the defect to one gate finger and as a result the follow-on physical analysis gets more complicated and time consuming. In this paper, we will explore an approach to simplify a given circuit and localize the failing finger in that circuit by cutting metal lines using diamond nano-probes [1] on the FEI Hyperion Atomic Force Probe (AFP) Platform. We will also describe some of the other applications of diamond nano-probes in facilitating semiconductor failure analysis.

Multi-Function Fusion Measurement Method for Surface Texture

The texture and characteristics of surface have been becoming the leading factors to achieve the designed function of products successfully. So the measurement of surface texture is more and more important. A kind of new multi-function fusion measurement method for surface texture is presented in the paper. Four kinds of different scale measurement methods such as microscopy image measurement, vertical scanning white light interference measurement, white light interference nanoprobe measurement and white light interference diamond-probe measurement are fused for the surface texture multi-function fusion measurement in this method.

Fabrication and Characterization of AFM Probe Integrated with High-Aspect-Ratio Diamond Tip

In order to realize a smart nano-machining and measurement system based on atomic force microscope (AFM), we have been developing diamond probes with a high-aspect-ratio, sharpened diamond tip. In this paper, we described the most important micromachining techniques for the fabrication of the diamond probes. The high-aspect-ratio diamond microstructures were successfully fabricated by employing our proposed two-step reactive ion etching (RIE) processes. A novel bonding technique of diamond to Si at wafer level was also developed by using an inorganic-organic hybrid sol-gel film (MeSiO3/2) as an adhesive layer to prepare a diamond/SOI wafer as the starting material. Moreover, we demonstrated the applicability of a fabricated diamond probe not only to AFM measurements but also to a tool for nanomachining.

Application of High Aspect Ratio Scanning Probe in Microstructure Measurement

An experiment, which is based on a self-developed pure tungsten high aspect ratio scanning probe, was conducted to measure the topography of a micro channel and a complex microstructure respectively. Comparison and analysis of both results by the tungsten probe and a single-crystal diamond probe were carried out. It indicates that the newly developed pure tungsten scanning probe has the capability in topography measurement, particularly fit for the high aspect ratio surface measurement.