NSF-DFG: Advances in Ion-Surface Interaction-Driven Manufacturing of One-Dimensional Metal Oxide Heterostructures

这笔赠款支持对制造生物医学传感和量子技术等许多应用领域所需的大面积纳米结构阵列的研究。这项研究有助于通过离子束表面相互作用形成纳米结构的相关科学的进步。在该制造过程中，利用原子和电离粒子在倾斜入射角下对表面的联合碰撞来可控地形成三维纳米结构阵列。在这种制造过程中可以使用广泛的材料和元素组合，从而导致纳米结构形成的多功能性。这一过程将提供一种对物理和化学结构的控制措施，目前这种结构限制了所产生的元素组成、纳米结构几何形状和形状的范围。多束离子束与选定的元素组成和动力学性质的选择相结合的使用，广泛地扩展了用于纳米结构制造的材料的范围。这项研究填补了三维纳米材料制造方面的空白，实现了精确的几何形状和元素控制。新的纳米材料具有更好的形状和材料组成控制以及精度，将使新的应用成为可能，例如在光子学、能量采集或生物传感方面。这项研究将使新材料用于设备应用，从而使美国的经济和社会受益。这笔赠款支持一项利用和解决制造、等离子物理、材料科学和数值方法的国际合作研究。在一个由国家科学基金会和德国国家科学基金会共同资助的联合计划下，与德国合作者的战略联盟加快了进展和研究成果。国际交流和跨学科方法支持工程劳动力培训，并有助于扩大未被充分代表的群体在科学和教育领域的参与。掠角沉积是一种通用的自下而上的技术，可以创建三维纳米结构，而不包括昂贵且耗时的光刻和蚀刻工艺。这项工作解决了目前大面积纳米结构形成和随后的技术使用的限制，这些限制源于结构扇化，即结构厚度或直径随着高度的增加而加宽，缺乏跨衬底表面的受控结构布置，以及对相关氧化物、氮化物和碳化物的化合物组成的控制不足。离子处理克服了这些障碍，它利用离子侵蚀进行初始衬底图案化，利用反应离子辅助生长形成具有精确化学计量比的化合物，并利用离子束计算限制风扇和改善结构均匀度。这项研究将通过计算驱动的实验方法来研究在掠角沉积过程中决定低能离子处理影响的机制。研究小组将在蒙特卡洛模拟的支持下，进行离子辅助制造和材料修改的实验，以探索纳米尺度上离子-表面驱动的相互作用。这些实验的特点是现场光学过程控制和基于有限元的动态建模，以实时探索材料制造过程中离子的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant supports research into the manufacture of large area arrays of nanostructures needed in many application areas such as biomedical sensing and quantum technologies. The research benefits the advancement of science associated with the formation of nanostructures through ion beam surface interactions. In this manufacturing process, the combined atom and ionized particle impingement at the surface under oblique angle of incidence is used to controllably form arrays of three-dimensional nanostructures. A wide spectrum of materials and elemental combinations can be used in this manufacturing process leading to a versatility in nanostructure formation. This process would provide a measure of control over the physical and chemical structure which currently limits the range of resulting elemental compositions, nanostructure geometries and shapes. The use of multiple of ion beams combined with selected elemental compositions and choice of kinetic properties widely extends the range of materials for nanostructure manufacturing. This research closes a gap in three-dimensional nanomaterials fabrication to achieve precise geometrical shape and elemental control. The new nanomaterials with improved shape and material composition control and precision will enable new applications, for example in photonics, energy harvesting, or biosensing. This research will benefit the economy and society of the United States through enabling new materials for device applications. The grant supports an international collaborative study utilizing and addressing manufacturing, plasma physics, materials science, and numerical methods. A strategic alignment with German collaborators under a joint program co-funded by both the National Science Foundation and the German National Science Foundation accelerates the progress and research outcomes. International exchange and interdisciplinary approaches support engineering workforce training and serves to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in science and education.Glancing angle deposition is a versatile bottom-up technique to create three-dimensional nanostructures without the inclusion of expensive and time-consuming lithographic and etching processes. This work addresses current limitations for broad area nanostructure formation and subsequent technical use which result from structure fanning, which is the broadening of structure thickness or diameter with increasing height, lack of controlled structure arrangements across a substrate surface and insufficient control over compound compositions for relevant oxides, nitrides, and carbides. Ion processing overcomes these barriers by utilizing ion erosion for the initial substrate patterning, reactive ion-assisted growth for compound formation with precise stoichiometry and ion beam figuring to limit fanning and improve structure homogeneity. The research will investigate mechanisms which determine the influence of low-energy ion processing during glancing angle deposition using a computationally driven experimental approach. The research team will perform experiments for ion-assisted manufacturing and material modification supported by Monte Carlo based simulations to explore ion-surface driven interactions on the nanoscale. The experiments are characterized by in situ optical process control and finite element based dynamic modeling to explore the impact of ions during material fabrication in real time.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.