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。纳米制造技术是这种快速增长的基石；如果没有这种能力，纳米技术将仅仅是一种推测。事实上，虽然纳米科学/技术的诞生是在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，但在最初的30年里，这一领域的发展相当缓慢——主要是由于缺乏纳米制造能力（及其可及性）。只是从20世纪90年代中期开始，纳米研究才经历了爆炸式的增长，与此同时，各种纳米制造技术的发展和更多的可用性也得到了提高。十年后，纳米技术行业经历了类似的快速增长。

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.