MRI: Acquisition of Three-Ion-Beam Microscopy System for Advanced Nanofabrication and Imaging

这笔重大研究仪器(MRI)赠款将使人们能够从卡尔·蔡司显微镜公司购买一台三离子束显微镜--Orion NanoFab系统。这种三光束系统可以为材料和器件的制造和表征提供前所未有的分辨率、精度和多功能性，一直到纳米级(大约是原子间距的几倍)。猎户座NanoFab系统预计将对跨学科的纳米科学研究产生重大影响，特别是在量子物质和技术、医疗和生物工程、光子和光电子研究、超材料和可再生能源科学等领域。三光束系统将设在加州理工学院(Caltech)的卡夫利纳米科学研究所(KNI)，该研究所为实验室提供最先进的基础设施，并为加州理工学院、喷气推进实验室(JPL)以及南加州大片地区的公司和其他研究所的研究人员提供集中式纳米制造和纳米表征设施。由于这种形式的三光束显微镜还处于初级阶段，加州理工大学还将与蔡司合作开展技术推广工作，将专家聚集在一起，推动三光束工具的新想法和应用。这一合作扩展计划包括：在加州理工学院与Orion NanoFab的工业和全球研究社区用户举办年度研讨会，就研究亮点、技术挑战以及新技术开发和应用交换信息。作为推广工作的一部分，还有一项计划为K-12年级的学生提供纳米科学“演示日”，在这一天中，KNI的先进仪器猎户座NanoFab和其他工具可以用来探索纳米世界，以及加州理工大学为当地高中生和教师举办的关于纳米科学和技术(纳米S)和现代显微镜应用的讲座和实验室参观。这笔主要研究仪器(核磁共振)赠款将使人们能够从蔡司显微镜公司购买一台三离子束显微镜--猎户座NanoFab系统。猎户座NanoFab是一种三离子束纳米制造和显微系统，成像分辨率为0.5纳米，切割分辨率为2纳米，几乎与材料无关。该系统的设计目的是在镓、霓虹和氦束之间无缝切换，这样人们就可以选择使用镓聚焦离子束(FIB)在微观尺度上绘制材料图案，利用强大而柔和的霓虹束进行快速精密的纳米加工，或者使用氦束制造精细的亚10 nm结构，这些结构要求极高的加工保真度和/或切割易受高能电子或重元素离子束损坏的精细材料(如石墨烯)。它的无掩膜纳米图形能力还将可能的污染降至最低，因为在处理和移除掩膜时需要多个步骤。猎户座NanoFab系统预计将对跨学科的纳米科学研究产生重大影响，特别是在量子物质和技术、医疗和生物工程、光子和光电子研究、超材料和可再生能源科学等领域。三光束系统将设在加州理工学院(Caltech)的卡夫利纳米科学研究所(KNI)，该研究所为实验室提供最先进的基础设施，并为加州理工学院、喷气推进实验室(JPL)以及南加州大片地区的公司和其他研究所的研究人员提供集中式纳米制造和纳米表征设施。我们还计划与蔡司合作，在加州理工学院举办一系列年度研讨会，将工业界和全球研究团体聚集在一起，帮助推进多光束显微镜和纳米制造的技术和应用。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant will enable the acquisition of a three-ion-beam microscope, the ORION NanoFab system, from Carl Zeiss Microscopy. This tri-beam system can provide unprecedented resolution, precision and versatility for the fabrication and characterization of materials and devices all the way down to the nanometer scale (roughly a few times the atomic spacing). The ORION NanoFab system is expected to make a significant impact on interdisciplinary nanoscience research, particularly in the areas of quantum matter and technology, medical and bio-engineering, photonic and optoelectronic research, meta-materials, and renewable energy science. The tri-beam system will be located at the Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which provides laboratories with state-of-the-art infrastructure and houses centralized nanofabrication and nano-characterization facilities for researchers at Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and corporations and other institutes in the greater area of Southern California. As this form of tri-beam microscopy is only in its infancy, Caltech will also be partnering with Zeiss in a technical outreach effort to bring experts together to advance new ideas and applications of the tri-beam tool. This collaborative outreach plan includes: hosting annual workshops at Caltech with industrial and global research-community users of the ORION NanoFab to exchange information on research highlights, technical challenges, and new technical developments and applications. As part of outreach effort there is also a plan to offer nanoscience "demo days" for K-12 students in which the advanced instrumentation of the ORION NanoFab and other tools in the KNI can be used to explore the nanoscopic world, as well as lectures and lab tours at Caltech to local high school students and teachers on topics of nano-science and technology (nano-S&T) and applications of modern microscopy.This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant will enable the acquisition of a three-ion-beam microscope, the ORION NanoFab system, from Carl Zeiss Microscopy. The ORION NanoFab is a three-ion-beam nano fabrication and microscopy system capable of an imaging resolution of 0.5 nm and a cutting resolution of ≲2nm, virtually independent of material. The system is designed to seamlessly switch between gallium, neon and helium beams, so that one has the option of employing the gallium focused ion beam (FIB) to pattern materials at the micro-scale, taking advantage of the powerful yet gentle neon beam for precision nano-machining with speed, or using the helium beam to fabricate delicate sub-10 nm structures that demand extremely high machining fidelity and/or cutting of delicate materials (such as graphene) that are prone to damage by high-energy electrons or heavy-element ion beams. Its capability of maskless nano-patterning also minimizes possible contamination due to the multiple steps required in processing and removing masks. The ORION NanoFab system is expected to make a significant impact on interdisciplinary nanoscience research, particularly in the areas of quantum matter and technology, medical and bio-engineering, photonic and optoelectronic research, meta-materials, and renewable energy science. The tri-beam system will be located at the Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which provides laboratories with state-of-the-art infrastructure and houses centralized nanofabrication and nano-characterization facilities for researchers at Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and corporations and other institutes in the greater area of Southern California. In partnership with Zeiss we also plan to bring together the industrial and global research-communities in a series of annual workshops at Caltech designed to help advance the technology and applications of multi-beam microscopy and nanofabrication.