Ion beam, focused ion beam, and plasma discharge machining

Non-conventional methods of machining are used for many engineering applications where the traditional processes fail to be cost-effective. Such processes include Ion Beam Machining (IBM), focused ion beam (FIB) machining and plasma discharge machining. The mechanisms of material removal and associated hardware and software developed for industrial applications of these fascinating electro-physical and chemical machining processes are reviewed together with the latest research findings. © 2009 CIRP.

Comparison and combination of several stress relief methods for cubic boron nitride films deposited by ion beam assisted deposition

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) films were prepared by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) technique, and the stresses were primary estimated by measuring the frequency shifts in the infrared-absorption peaks of c-BN samples. To test the possible effects of other factors, dependencies of the c-BN transversal optical mode position on film thickness and c-BN content were investigated. Several methods for reducing the stress of c-BN films including annealing, high temperature deposition, two-stage process, and the addition of a small amount of Si were studied, in which the c-BN films with similar thickness and cubic phase content were used to evaluate the effects of the various stress relief methods. It was shown that all the methods can reduce the stress in c-BN films to various extents. Especially, the incorporation of a small amount of Si (2.3 at.%) can result in a remarkable stress relief from 8.4 to similar to 3.6 GPa whereas the c-BN content is nearly unaffected, although a slight degradation of the c-BN crystallinity is observed. The stress can be further reduced down below I GPa by combination of the addition of Si with the two-stage deposition process. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Properties of high k gate dielectric gadolinium oxide deposited on Si(100) by dual ion beam deposition (DIBD)

Gadolinium oxide thin films have been prepared on silicon (100) substrates with a low-energy dual ion-beam epitaxial technique. Substrate temperature was an important factor to affect the crystal structures and textures in an ion energy range of 100-500 eV. The films had a monoclinic Gd2O3 structure with preferred orientation ((4) over bar 02) at low substrate temperatures. When the substrate temperature was increased, the orientation turned to (202), and finally, the cubic structure appeared at the substrate temperature of 700 degreesC, which disagreed with the previous report because of the ion energy. The AES studies found that Gadolinium oxide shared Gd2O3 structures, although there were a lot of oxygen deficiencies in the films, and the XPS results confirmed this. AFM was also used to investigate the surface images of the samples. Finally, the electrical properties were presented. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mn implanted GaAs by low energy ion beam deposition

High dose Mn was implanted into semi-insulating GaAs substrate to fabricate embedded ferromagnetic Mn-Ga binary particles by mass-analyzed dual ion beam deposit system at room temperature. The properties of as-implanted and annealed samples were measured with X-ray diffraction, high-resolution X-ray diffraction to characterize the structural changes. New phase formed after high temperature annealing. Sample surface image was observed with atomic force microscopy. All the samples showed ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature. There were some differences between the hysteresis loops of as-implanted and annealed samples as well as the cluster size of the latter was much larger than that of the former through the surface morphology. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

FexSi grown with mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam deposition

Heavily iron-implanted silicon was prepared by mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam deposition technique. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiles indicate that iron ions are shallowly implanted into the single-crystal silicon substrate and formed 35 nm thick FexSi films. X-ray diffraction measurements show that as-implanted sample is amorphous and the structure of crystal is partially restored after as-implanted sample was annealed at 400degreesC. There are no new phases formed. Carrier concentration depth profile of annealed sample was measured by Electrochemical C-V method and indicated that FexSi film shows n-type conductivity while silicon substrate is p-type. The p-n junction is formed between FexSi film and silicon substrate showing rectifying effect. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fabrication of GdSi2 film by low-energy ion-beam implantation

Single-phase gadolinium disilicide was fabricated by a low-energy ion-beam implantation technique. Auger electron spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to determine the composition and chemical states of the film. The structure of the sample was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and the surface morphology was investigated by scan electron microscopy. Based on the measurements, only orthorhombic GdSi2 phase was found in the sample and the surface morphology was pitting. After annealing at 350degreesC for 30 min at Ar atmosphere, the full-width at half-maximum of GdSi2 became narrower. It indicates that the GdSi2 is crystallized better after annealing. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

(Ga, Gd, As) film growth on GaAs substrate by low-energy ion-beam deposit

(Ga, Gd, As) film was fabricated by the mass-analyzed dual ion-beam epitaxy system with the energy of 1000 eV at room temperature. There was no new peak found except GaAs substrate peaks (0 0 2) and (0 0 4) by X-ray diffraction. Rocking curves were measured for symmetric (0 0 4) reflections to further yield the lattice mismatch information by employing double-crystal X-ray diffraction. The element distributions vary so much due to the ion dose difference from AES depth profiles. The sample surface morphology indicates oxidizing layer roughness is also relative to the Gd ion dose, which leads to islandlike feature appearing on the high-dose sample. One sample shows ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Gal(1-x)Mn(1-x)Sb grown on GaSb with mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam deposition

The Ga1-xMnxSb samples were fabricated by the implantation of Mn ions into GaSb (1 0 0) substrate with mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam deposition system, and post-annealing. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profile of the Ga1-xMnxSb samples showed that the Mn ions were successfully implanted into GaSb substrate. Clear double-crystal X-ray diffraction patterns of the Ga1-xMnxSb samples indicate that the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayers have the zinc-blende structure without detectable second phase. Magnetic hysteresis-loop of the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayers were obtained at room temperature (293 K) with alternating gradient magnetometry. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Investigation of Mn-implanted n-Si by low-energy ion beam deposition

Mn ions were implanted to n-type Si(0 0 1) single crystal by low-energy ion beam deposition technique with an energy of 1000 eV and a dose of 7.5 x 10(17) cm(-2). The samples were held at room temperature and at 300degreesC during implantation. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiles of samples indicate that the Mn ions reach deeper in the sample implanted at 300degreesC than in the sample implanted at room temperature. X-ray diffraction measurements show that the structure of the sample implanted at room temperature is amorphous while that of the sample implanted at 300degreesC is crystallized. There are no new phases found except silicon both in the two samples. Atomic force microscopy images of samples indicate that the sample implanted at 300degreesC has island-like humps that cover the sample surface while there is no such kind of characteristic in the sample implanted at room temperature. The magnetic properties of samples were investigated by alternating gradient magnetometer (AGM). The sample implanted at 300degreesC shows ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. (C) 2004 Elsevier BN. All rights reserved.

Fabrication of photonic crystals on several kinds of semiconductor materials by using focused-ion beam method

In this paper, we introduced the fabrication of photonic crystals on several kinds of semiconductor materials by using focused-ion beam machine, it shows that the method of focused-ion beam can fabricate two-dimensional photonic crystal and photonic crystal device efficiently, and the quality of the fabricated photonic crystal is high. Using the focused-ion beam method, we fabricate photonic crystal wavelength division multiplexer, and its characteristics are analyzed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fabrication of photonic crystal on semiconductor materials by using focued ion-beam

A method of manufacturing two-dimensional photonic crystals on several kinds of semiconductor materials in near infrared region by a focused ion beam is introduced, and the corresponding fabrication results are presented and show that the obtained parameters of fabricated photonic crystals are identical with the designed ones. Using the tunable laser source, the spectra of the fabricated passive photonic crystal and the active photonic crystal are measured. The experiment demonstrates that the focused ion-beam can be used to fabricate the perfect two-dimensional photonic crystals and their devices.

(Ga,Mn,N) compounds growth with mass-analyzed low energy dual ion beam deposition

The (Ga,Mn,N) samples were grown by the implantation of low-energy Mn ions into GaN/Al2O3 substrate at different elevated substrate temperatures with mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam deposition system. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profile of samples grown at different substrate temperatures indicates that the Mn ions reach deeper in samples with higher substrate temperatures. Clear X-ray diffraction peak from (Ga,Mn)N is observed in samples grown at the higher substrate temperature. It indicates that under optimized substrate temperature and annealing conditions the solid solution (Ga,Mn)N phase in samples was formed with the same lattice structure as GaN and different lattice constant. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Surface morphology of ion-beam deposited carbon films under high temperature

Carbon films with an open-ended structure were obtained by mass-selected ion-beam deposition technique at 800degreesC. Raman spectra show that these films are mainly sp(2)-bonded. In our case, threshold ion energy of 140 eV was found for the formation of such surface morphology. High deposition temperature and ion-beam current density are also responsible for the growth of this structure. Additionally, the growth mechanism of the carbon films is discussed in this article. It was found that the ions sputtered pits on the substrate in the initial stage play a key role in the tubular surface morphology. (C) 2002 American Vacuum Society.

GdxSi grown with mass-analyzed low energy dual ion beam epitaxy technique

Semiconducting gadolinium silicide GdxSi samples were prepared by mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam epitaxy technique. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiles indicate that the gadolinium ions are implanted into the single-crystal silicon substrate and formed 20 nm thick GdxSi film. X-ray double-crystal diffraction measurement shows that there is no new phase formed. The XPS spectra show that one type of silicon peaks whose binding energy is between that of silicide and silicon dioxide, and the gadolinium peak of binding energy is between that of metal Gd and Gd2O3. All of these results indicate that an amorphous semiconductor is formed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Anomalous temperature dependence of photoluminescence from a-C : H film deposited by energetic hydrocarbon ion beam

The temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) from a-C:H film deposited by CH3+ ion beam has been performed and an anomalous behavior has been reported. A transition temperature at which the PL intensity, peak position and full width at the half maximum change sharply was observed. It is proposed that different structure units. at least three, are responsible for such behavior. Above the transition point. increasing temperature will lead to the dominance of non-radiative recombination process, which quenches the PL overall and preferentially the red part, Possible emission mechanisms have been discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.