We report here swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation induced effects on structural and surface properties of III-nitrides. Tensile strained Al(1-x)InxN/GaN Hetero-Structures (HS) were realized using Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Despotion (MOCVD) technique with indium composition as 12%. Ion species and energies are chosen such that electronic energy deposition rates differ significantly in Al(1-x)InxN and are essential for understanding the ion beam interactions at the interfaces. Thus the samples were irradiated with 80 MeV Ni6+ and 100 MeV Ag7+ ions at varied fluence (1×1012 and 3 ×1012 ions/cm2) to alter the structural properties. Under this energy regime, the structural changes in Al(1-x)InxN would occur due to the intense ultrafast excitations of electrons along the ion path. We employed different characterization techniques like High Resolution X- ray Diffraction (HRXRD) and Rutherford back scattering spectrometry (RBS) for composition, thickness and strain. HRXRD and RBS experimental spectra have been fitted with Philip’s epitaxy SIMNRA code, which yields thickness and composition from compound semiconductors. The surface morphology of pristine and irradiated samples is studied and compared by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).

Ge nanocrystals embedded in silica matrix have been synthesized on Si substrate by co-sputtering of SiO2 and Ge using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The as-deposited films were subjected to microwave annealing at 800 and 9000C. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) has been used to measure the Ge composition and film thickness. The structural characterization was performed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectrometry. XRD measurements confirmed the formation of Ge nanocrystals. Raman scattering spectra showed a peak of Ge-Ge vibrational mode around 299 cm−1, which was caused by quantum confinement of phonons in the Ge nanocrystals. Surface morphology of the samples was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Variation of nanocrystal size with annealing temperature has been discussed. Advantages of microwave annealing are explained in detail.

Swift heavy ion irradiation is one of the most versatile techniques to alter and monitor the properties of materials in general and at nanoscale in particular. The materials modification can be controlled by a suitable choice of ion beam parameters such as ion species, fluence and incident energy. It is also possible to choose these ion beam parameters in such a way that ion beam irradiation can cause annealing of defects or creation of defects at a particular depth. Here, we present a review of our work on swift heavy ion induced modifications of III-V semiconductor heterostructures and multi-quantum wells in addition to synthesis of Ge nanocrystals using atom beam co-sputtering, RF magnetron sputtering followed by RTA, swift heavy ion irradiation, respectively. We also present the growth of GeO2 nanocrystals by microwave annealing. These samples were studied by using XRD, Raman, PL, RBS and TEM. The observed results and their explanation using possible mechanisms are discussed in detail.

Swift heavy ion induced modifications on graphene were investigated by means of atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. For the experiment graphene was exfoliated onto different substrates (SrTiO3 (100), TiO2(100), Al2O3(1102) and 90 nm SiO2/Si) by the standard technique. After irradiation with heavy ions of 93 MeV kinetic energy and under glancing angles of incidence, characteristic folding structures are observed. The folding patterns on crystalline substrates are generally larger and are created with a higher efficiency than on the amorphous SiO2. This difference is attributed to the relatively large distance between graphene and SiO2 of d ≈ 1 nm.

We have explored the application of ion implantation as a tool for the enhancement of neural cell growth on glass surfaces. Glass substrates were ion implanted with gold and with carbon using a metal vapor vacuum arc (MEVVA) ion source-based implantation system at Ege University Surface Modification Laboratory. The implantation dose was varied over the range 1014 – 1017 ions/cm2 and the ion energy spanned the range 20 – 80 keV. B35 neural cells were seeded and incubated on the implanted substrates for 48h at 37°C. After 2-days in culture the cell attachment behavior was characterized using phase contrast microscopy. The adhesion and direct contact of neural cells on these ion implanted glass surfaces were observed

Ion-beam sputtering (IBS) has been studied as a means for scalable, mask-less nanopatterning of surfaces. Patterning at the nanoscale has been achieved for numerous types of materials including: semiconductors, metals and insulators. Although much work has been focused on tailoring nanopatterning by systematic ion-beam parameter manipulation, limited work has addressed elucidating on the underlying mechanisms for self-organization of multi-component surfaces. In particular there has been little attention to correlate the surface chemistry variation during ion irradiation with the evolution of surface morphology and nanoscale self-organization. Moreover the role of surface impurities on patterning is not well known and characterization during the time-scale of modification remains challenging. This work summarizes an in-situ approach to characterize the evolution of surface chemistry during irradiation and its correlation to surface nanopatterning for a variety of multi-components surfaces. The work highlights the importance and role of surface impurities in nanopatterning of a surface during low-energy ion irradiation. In particular, it shows the importance of irradiation-driven mechanisms in GaSb(100) nanopatterning by low-energy ions and how the study of these systems can be impacted by oxide formation.

As an integral part of the Symposium on "Ion Beams - Applications from Nanoscale to Mesoscale" at the MRS Spring 2011 Meeting, participants were invited to join two open “brainstorming” Forum Discussions, intended to highlight opportunities for application of ion beam techniques in advancing the frontiers of materials research and making high impact contributions to solving some of the world’s major issues for the future. Participants were invited to imagine freely how the field might develop (or be steered) in the next 5-10 years, in the light of the current state of the art, and in the light of the emerging needs of the global community.

The resulting ideas and suggestions led to thoughtful discussions, that displayed a remarkable degree of consensus on future directions, opportunities and challenges for the field. This paper attempts to capture and report briefly the spectrum of ideas and the recommended priorities that emerged from the resulting discussions.

We prepared samples by electron beam physical vapor deposition EB-PVD followed by ion bombardment. The samples were than characterized by photoluminescence (PL), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). PL was used to characterize the available energy states. XPS was used to determine the binding energies. The ML’s are comprised of 100 alternating layers of SiO2/SiO2+Cu.

The ability to strongly attach biomolecules such as enzymes and antibodies to surfaces underpins a host of technologies that are rapidly growing in utility and importance. Such technologies include biosensors for medical and environmental applications and protein or antibody diagnostic arrays for early disease detection. Emerging new applications include continuous flow reactors for enzymatic chemical, textile or biofuels processing and implantable biomaterials that interact with their host via an interfacial layer of active biomolecules. In many of these applications it is desirable to maintain physical properties of an underlying material whilst engineering a surface suitable for attachment of proteins or peptide constructs. Nanoscale polymeric interlayers are attractive for this purpose.

We have developed interlayers[1] that form the basis of a new biomolecule binding technology with significant advantages over other currently available methods. The interlayers, created by the ion implantation of polymer like surfaces, achieve covalent immobilization on immersion of the surface in protein solution. The interlayers can be created on any underlying material and ion stitched into its surface. The covalent immobilization of biomolecules from solution is achieved through the action of highly reactive free radicals in the interlayer.

In this paper, we present characterisation of the structure and properties of the interlayers and describe a detailed kinetic model for the covalent attachment of protein molecules directly from solution.

The University of Florida (UF) have recently collaborated with Raith Inc. to modify Raith’s ion beam lithography, nanofabrication and engineering (ionLiNE) station that utilizes only Ga ions, into a multi-ion beam system (MionLiNE) by adding the capabilities to use liquid metal alloy sources (LMAIS) to access a variety of ions and an EXB filter for mass separation. The MionLiNE modifications discussed below provide a wide range of spatial and temporal precision that can be used to investigate ion solid interactions under extended boundary conditions, as well as for ion lithography and nanofabrication. Here we demonstrate the ion beam lithographic capabilities of the MionLiNE for fabricating patterned arrays of Au and Si nanocrystals, with nanoscale dimensions, in SiO2 substrates, by direct implantation; and show that the same directwrite/maskless-implantation features can be used for in situ fabrication of nanoelectronic devices. Additionally, the spatial and temporal capabilities of the MionLiNE are used to explore the effects of dose rate on the long-standing surface morphological transformation that occurs in ion bombarded Ge.

The bonding between two dissimilar materials has been a problem, partiularly in coating metals with non-metallic protective layer. In this work, it is demonstrated that a strong bonding between ceramics/metal can be achieved by mixing the atoms at the interface by ion-beam. Specifically, SiC coating on Hastelloy X was studied for a high temperature corrosion protection. Auger elemental mapping across the interface shows a far broader mixed region than the region expected by SRIM calculation, which is thought to be due to the thermal spike liquid state diffusion. The results showed that, although the thermal expansion coefficient of Hastelloy X is about three times higher than that of SiC, the film did not peel-off at above 900 oC confirming excellent adhesion. Instead, the SiC film was cracked along the grain boundary of the substrate above 700 oC. At above 900 oC, the film was crystallized forming islands on the substrate so that a considerable part of the substrate surface could be exposed to the corrosive environment. To cover the exposed area, it is suggested that the coating/IBM process should be repeated multiply.

Due to its outstanding thermal and chemical stability, single-crystal sapphire is a crucial material for high-temperature optical sensing applications. The potential for using hydrogen ion implantation to fabricate stable, high temperature optical waveguides in single crystal sapphire is investigated in this work. Hydrogen ions were implanted in c-plane sapphire with energies of 35 keV and 1 MeV and fluences 1016-1017/cm2. Subsequent annealing was carried out in air at temperatures ranging from 500˚C to 1200˚C. Complementary techniques were used to characterize the samples, including ellipsometry and prism coupling to examine optical properties, Rutherford backscattering/ion channeling for crystal defects, and nuclear reaction analysis for hydrogen profiling. Several guiding modes were observed in H-implanted (1 MeV) samples annealed above 800˚C through prism coupling, and a maximum index modification of 3% was observed in the 35 keV samples and 1% in the 1 MeV samples through ellipsometry, with the 1 MeV index variation being confirmed through prism coupling. The possible causes of the index modifications, such as H related defects, as well as implications for tailoring the refractive index of sapphire are discussed.

Ion irradiation with 130 keV Ge+ or 120 keV Sb+ has modified, by thermal spike effect, the local atomic arrangement in the structure of as-deposited sputtered amorphous GeTe and Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films. The changes in the local order have been analyzed by Raman and EXAFS spectroscopy. In addition the crystallization kinetic, measured by “in situ” time resolved reflectivity and optical microscope analysis, is found to be faster in the irradiated samples. The nucleation rate and the grain growth velocity are enhanced by a factor of about ten with respect to the unirradiated samples in the investigated temperature range (120°C –170°C).

The generation of hot charge carriers within a solid bombarded by charged particles is investigated using biased thin film metal-insulator-metal (MIM) devices. For slow, highly charged ions approaching a metal surface the main dissipation process is electronic excitation of the substrate, leading to electron emission into the vacuum and internal electron emission across the MIM junction. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the distribution and transport of the excited charge carriers leading to the measured device current, we compare ion induced and electron induced excitation processes in terms of absolute internal emission yields as well as their dependence on the applied bias voltage.

High energy ion beams are used to modify co-deposited nanolayer films of alternated materials (e.g. insulator and metal, two different semiconductors, even more complex arrangements) to form nanodots through localized nucleation. The particular application being considered here is for high efficiency thermoelectric conversion systems. The performance of a thermoelectric converter is generally given by the figure of merit, ZT, which is a function of the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity. A high performance device would have a maximized electrical conductivity and a minimized thermal conductivity (maximum electron transport, minimal phonon transport). The current models of electron and phonon transportation through 1D, 2D, 3D quantum regimented structures assume an infinitely repetitive perfect structural “cell”, with complicated algorithms requiring intensive computing power. The main focus for this modeling effort is to reduce the three-dimensional problem to a single dimensional approximation without sacrificing the quality of the result. The nanostructure being investigated has Si and Ge quantum dots arranged with perfect periodicity in all three Cartesian directions, with the heat and electricity flow monitored in the z-direction (cross-plane as initially layered). Non-Equilibrium Green’s Functions Formalism (NEGF) is the mode for calculating the theoretical electrical properties assuming a one-dimensional quantum well arrangement in the z-direction (with finite boundaries in the x and y directions) with tight binding (nearest neighbor approximation). The results are to be compared with experimental measurements on such structures.

Although Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) was introduced only a few years ago, many new application fields are budding. The connecting factor between these novel applications is the unique interaction of the primary helium ion beam with the sample material at and just below its surface. In particular, the HIM secondary electron (SE) signal stems from an area that is very well localized around the point of incidence of the primary beam. This makes the HIM well-suited for both high-resolution imaging as well as high resolution nanofabrication. Another advantage in nanofabrication is the low ion backscattering fraction, leading to a weak proximity effect. The lack of a quantitative materials analysis mode (like EDX in Scanning Electron Microscopy, SEM) and a relatively low beam current as compared to the SEM and the Gallium Focused Ion Beam are the present drawbacks of the HIM.

A sequential two step 32 keV Au implantation and 1.5 MeV Au irradiation technique has been used to synthesize Si nanoclusters (NCs) in Si. The low energy amorphising implantation has been carried out over a fluence range of (1 – 100) × 1015 cm−2 while the high energy recrystallizing irradiation fluence was fixed at 1 × 1015 cm−2. Samples were further annealed in air at temperatures between 500° to 950° C for a fixed annealing time of 1 hr and were characterized using Raman scattering at an excitation wavelength of 514.5 nm. Results on as-implanted and irradiated samples indicate formation of strained NCs in the top amorphised layer. Annealing around 500°C has been found to result in strain relief after which the data could be well explained using a phonon confinement model with an extremely narrow size distribution.

Cluster ion beam processes which employ ions comprised of a few hundred to several thousand atoms are being developed into a new field of ion beam technology. The processes are characterized by low energy surface interaction effects, lateral sputtering phenomena and high-rate chemical reaction effects. This paper reviews the current status of studies of the fundamental cluster ion beam characteristics as they apply to nanoscale processing and present industrial applications. As new prospective applications, techniques are now being developed to employ cluster ions in surface analysis tools such as XPS and SIMS and to modify surfaces of bio-materials. Results related to these new projects will also be reviewed.

Ion irradiation effects in nanowires are of increasing interest due to potential applications of the wires as e.g. current-carrying elements in transistors or as efficient light emitters. Although several experiments have already demonstrated such functionalities, very few theoretical studies on the fundamental mechanisms of ion irradiation have been carried out. To shed light on the basic mechanisms of nanowire irradiation, we have simulated 0.03- 10 keV Ar ion irradiation of Si nanowires with a < 111 >-oriented axis and with all side facets being < 112 >. We compare the results with those for Si surfaces and bulk. The results show that the damage production in the nanowire is strongly influenced by surface effects.