Influence of the energy of the film forming particles on the properties of sculptured columnar thin films

拟议项目的总体目标是产生新的知识，了解成膜粒子的能量与雕塑柱状薄膜(SCTF)的性质之间的关系，以改善其结构均一性。因此，有必要对工艺条件(蒸发或离子束溅射产生的粒子通量，有无辅助离子束)与薄膜性能之间的关系进行系统和全面的分析。这些纳米工程表面增强材料可以添加额外的材料来获得多功能性能和提供众多的研究领域，并被用于化学、生化和生物应用。超临界流体材料通常是通过掠角沉积(GREAD)制备的，这是一种自下而上的制造技术，它采用了倾斜的物理气相沉积过程。在固定的衬底位置，向衬底倾斜的柱子会正常生长。沉积过程中衬底的额外旋转允许产生阶梯式或连续的柱旋转和形成3D纳米结构。尽管如本文前面所示，SCTF被用于许多不同的应用，但由于需要具有显著改善的结构均匀度的SCTF，进一步的进展目前停滞不前。具体来说，需要降低柱侧的粗糙度，同时需要抑制柱间的无序和柱子的扇形。拟进行的项目将利用在DFG-项目工作中获得的经验和知识。一次离子束参数(离子种类和能量)和几何参数(入射和发射角度)对成膜粒子性质的影响将使人们能够更好地控制生长结构的性质。内布拉斯加州大学林肯分校的纳米杂化功能材料中心(CNFM)提供了一种独特的实验装置--iGLAD工具，它可以在同一个沉积室中通过蒸发和/或离子束溅射沉积和额外的离子束辅助沉积来制备SCTF。因此，有可能对不同的生长方法进行合理的比较。此外，CNFM的教职员工，特别是M.Schubert教授和E.Schubert教授，在GLAD生产的SCTF的沉积、表征和应用方面拥有丰富的经验。拟议的项目使申请者有可能将其关于离子束溅射沉积的全面知识应用于具有众多未来应用可能性的完美合适的研究领域。

The overall goal of the proposed project is the generation of new knowledge concerning the understanding of the correlation between the energy of the film forming particles and the properties of sculptured columnar thin films (SCTFs) to improve their structure homogeneity. Therefore, a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the relations between the process conditions (particle flux generated by evaporation or ion beam sputtering, with and without assisting ion beam) and the properties of the grown films is necessary.Sculptured columnar thin films consist of 3D-shaped, highly coherently-oriented nanostructures. These nano-engineered surface-enhanced materials can be augmented with additional materials to obtain multifunctional properties and to offer numerous research areas and are used in chemical, biochemical and biological applications.The SCTFs are commonly produced by glancing angle deposition (GLAD), a bottom-up fabrication technique that employs physical vapor deposition processes at oblique angles. At fixed substrate position, columns with slanting angle towards the substrate normal grow. An additional rotation of the substrate during deposition allows for creation of step-wise or continuous column rotations and formation of 3D nano-architectures.Although SCTFs are used in many different applications as shown earlier in this text, further progress is currently halted because SCTFs with substantially improved structure homogeneity are needed. In detail, the roughness of the column sides needs to be reduced as well as the intercolumnar disorder and the fanning of the columns needs to be suppressed.The intended project will use the experience and knowledge gained in the work on the DFG-project. The influence of the primary ion beam parameters (ion species and energy) and the geometrical parameters (incidence and emission angle) on the properties of the film forming particles will enable a better control over the properties of the growing structures. This will directly help to improve the structural homogeneity (roughness, fanning and disorder) of the SCTFs.The Center for Nanohybrid Functional Materials (CNFM) at the university of Nebraska-Lincoln offers a unique experimental setup, the iGLAD tool, which gives the possibility to produce SCTFs by GLAD using evaporation and/or ion beam sputter deposition and additional ion beam assisted deposition under identical conditions in one deposition chamber. Therefore, a reasonable comparison of the different growth methods is possible. Also, the faculty members of the CNFM, especially Prof. M. Schubert and Prof. E. Schubert, have extensive experience in deposition, characterization and application of SCTFs produced with GLAD.The proposed project gives the applicant the possibility to apply his comprehensive knowledge of ion beam sputter deposition in a perfectly fitting research area with numerous future application possibilities.