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

该项目的总体目标是产生新的知识，了解成膜颗粒的能量与雕塑柱状薄膜（SCTF）的性能之间的相关性，以提高其结构的均匀性。因此，有必要系统而全面地分析工艺条件（蒸发或离子束溅射产生的粒子流，有或没有辅助离子束）与生长薄膜的性质之间的关系。雕塑柱状薄膜由三维形状的高度相干取向的纳米结构组成。这些纳米工程表面增强材料可以用额外的材料来增强，以获得多功能特性，并提供许多研究领域，并用于化学，生物化学和生物应用。SCTF通常通过掠射角沉积（GLAD）来生产，这是一种自下而上的制造技术，采用倾斜角度的物理气相沉积工艺。在固定的基底位置，向基底法线倾斜的柱生长。在沉积过程中，衬底的额外旋转允许创建逐步或连续的列旋转和形成3D nano-architecture.Although SCTF被用于许多不同的应用中，如本文前面所示，进一步的进展目前被停止，因为需要具有显著改善的结构均匀性的SCTF。具体而言，需要减少柱侧的粗糙度，并抑制柱间的无序和柱的扇形化。预期项目将使用DFG项目工作中获得的经验和知识。初级离子束参数（离子种类和能量）和几何参数（入射角和发射角）对成膜颗粒的性质的影响将使得能够更好地控制生长结构的性质。这将直接有助于提高SCTF的结构均匀性（粗糙度、扇形和无序度）。内布拉斯加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，该工具可以在同一个沉积室中，在相同的条件下，使用蒸发和/或离子束溅射沉积以及附加的离子束辅助沉积，通过GLAD生产SCTF。因此，不同生长方法的合理比较是可能的。此外，CNFM的教职员工，特别是M。Schubert和E. Schubert先生在GLAD制备的SCTF的沉积、表征和应用方面拥有丰富的经验。拟议的项目使申请人有可能将其在离子束溅射沉积方面的全面知识应用于具有众多未来应用可能性的完美适合的研究领域。

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.