Advanced nanostructure and device fabrication

纳米科学技术是近年来发展最快的研究领域之一。纳米纤维技术是这种快速增长的基石;没有这种能力，纳米技术将仅仅是一种猜测。事实上，虽然纳米科学/技术的诞生发生在50多年前，从理查德·费曼1959年著名的演讲“底部有足够的空间”开始，但该领域在前30年的增长相当缓慢-主要是由于缺乏纳米制造能力（及其可访问性）。只是自20世纪90年代中期以来，纳米研究才经历了爆炸式增长，与广泛的纳米纤维技术的发展和更多的可用性相吻合。自十年后，纳米技术行业经历了类似的快速增长。有两种方法可以实现纳米级的制造：“自下而上”，涉及化学合成和自组装，以及“自上而下”，其中纳米结构通过光刻法生成或复制。对于“自上而下”方法，电子束光刻、聚焦离子束蚀刻/光刻和纳米压印光刻通常用于创建或复制纳米结构。在过去的18年里，我的研究集中在使用自上而下方法的纳米结构和器件制造上，这种方法在纳米结构尺寸，几何形状和位置方面提供了比自下而上方法更精确的控制。拟议的研究计划的主要目标是开发领先的纳米纤维技术。纳米纤维研究的最终目标是提高分辨率，吞吐量，三维（3D）图案化，再现性，在不规则（非平面）表面上图案化的能力，与衬底/覆盖材料的兼容性等方面的性能在未来五年内，我的团队将致力于解决其中一些关键问题，通过三个高度集成的项目。第一个项目是氦离子光刻。氦离子显微镜（HIM）无疑是近十年来聚焦离子束家族中最重要的突破。目前，UW在加拿大拥有唯一的HIM。它提供了非常高的分辨率，与流行的镓离子束相比，对设备的损坏和污染明显较少。第二个项目旨在开发一种新型的纳米光刻技术，能够在非平面或不规则表面上进行纳米加工，其应用包括光电器件，化学和生物传感器。最后一个项目致力于推动硅的电化学蚀刻的极限，以在硅中产生极深和极窄的纳米级孔阵列。这种结构在硅中的一个应用是锂离子电池的阳极，其提供比碳高一个数量级的理论储能容量。

Nanoscale science and technology is one of the fastest growing research areas in recent years. Nanofabrication techniques are the cornerstone for this rapid growth; without this capability, nanotechnology would be a mere speculation. In fact, while the birth of nano-science/technology was occurred over fifty years ago, from Richard Feynman's famous 1959 lecture "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", growth in this field was rather slow in its first 30 years - mainly due to the lack of nanofabrication capability (and its accessibility). It is only since the mid-1990s that nano-research has experienced explosive grown, coinciding with the development and more availability of a broad range of nanofabrication techniques. The nanotechnology industry has experienced a similar fast growth since a decade later.***There are two approaches to enabling fabrication at the nanoscale: "bottom-up", which involves chemical synthesis and self-assembly, and "top down", where nanostructures are generated or duplicated by lithography. For the "top-down" method, electron beam lithography, focused ion beam etching/lithography and nanoimprint lithography are generally used to create or duplicate nano-structures. My research over the past 18 years has centered on nanostructure and device fabrication using top-down approaches, which offer more precise control than the bottom up methods in terms of nanostructure size, geometry and location.***The primary objective of the proposed research program is to develop leading-edge nanofabrication techniques. The ultimate goal of nanofabrication research is to improve performance in terms of resolution, throughput, three dimensional (3D) patterning, reproducibility, capability of patterning on irregular (non-planar) surface, compatibility with the substrate/superstrate materials, etc. Over the next five years, my group will work to address some of these key issues, through three highly integrated projects.***The first project is helium ion lithography. Helium ion microscope (HIM) is without doubt the most significant breakthrough in the family of focused ion beam in the past decade. At present, UW has the only HIM in Canada. It offers very high resolution with significantly less damage and contamination to the device than the popular gallium ion beam. The second project aims to develop a novel nano-lithography technique capable of nanofabrication on non-planar or irregular surface, for which the applications include optoelectronic device, and chemical and biological sensors. The last project endeavors to push the limit of electrochemical etching of silicon to create extremely deep and narrow nanoscale hole array in silicon. One application of such structure in silicon is anode for lithium ion battery, which offers one order higher theoretical energy storage capacity than carbon.