Nano-patterning and visualization engine for a focused ion beam system

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This proposal seeks funding to add a tool to the CRPuO Nanofab, a core nanofabrication facility at the University of Ottawa. The Nanofab is broadly accessible and under the management of the Centre for Research in Photonics at uOttawa (CRPuO), which has a membership of 24 professors directing over 200 research personnel and students. The facility is accessed by several internal and external users - currently 59 PDFs and graduate students - to fabricate devices and structures of interest in photonics, microfluidics, MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) and electronics for applications across varied fields such as biomedical engineering, biophysics, alternative energy, and information and communications technologies. This is the only non-captive accessible nanofabrication facility in the Ottawa region - its user base, which consists mostly of PIs, students and post-doctoral fellows, spans the region, reaching into Montreal. Researchers from several departments within the University of Ottawa, from Carleton Universities, and from the National Research Council depend on this facility for critical aspects of their work. The facility also supports several international research projects and university-industry research partnerships.*** The equipment requested consists of a nanopatterning and visualisation engine for our Zeiss Orion Nanofab He/Ga focussed ion beam (FIB) system. The nanopatterning and visualization engine sought provides a comprehensive and user-friendly means to define, execute and observe nanopatterning operations on a Ga or He FIB system. The engine is a powerful tool, combining complex ion beam control with real-time visualisation. This combination greatly increases the likelihood of success and enables the machining of complex nanostructures. The combination is essential for applications where the sample is substantially modified, particularly over a period of time, as is typically the case for FIB operations using gases (we have three – W, TEOS and XeF2). Furthermore, the combined capability enables gauging of endpoint conditions in order to precisely stop or alter the patterning process based on visual and graphical feedback in real time.*** Our FIB is among our facility's most heavily used tools - it runs daily on internal projects for our PIs, and increasingly, on industrial fee-for-service contracts. He ions produce the best images available by detection of secondary electron emission - they are of better resolution than SEM images. Additionally, high-current He beams can machine features as small as 5 nm by ablation of materials (deposited or bulk), enabling features and photonics at the sub 10 nm scale. This imaging and machining capability is of critical importance to our industrial partners and many of our PIs for metasurface, metamaterial, plasmonic and silicon nanophotonic nanostructures.*****