Research Projects

ATOMIC AND NEAR ATOMIC SCALE CHARACTERIZATION

Faculty Mentors: Profs. R. Vanfleet and L. Giannuzzi

Science and technology has been in a relentless march to create and understand materials and processes at ever finerscales. The ability to scale fabrication processes to the nanometer scale is emerging as is the techniques for self-assembly and biological and chemical synthesis of nanostructures. One technology that is vital to this trend is microscopy. The ability to look at a nanostructure and obtain detailed information about structure, composition, and chemistry will be vital to the continued success of these endeavors.

An example is shown in Figure A, where not only is the silicon atomic lattice shown but the brighter band is an antimony delta doped layer. Figure B shows a germanium self assembled island on silicon. The higher atomic number germanium shows brighter than the silicon substrate. Inelastic scattering processes (Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy) can also be probed, in parallel with the ADF signal to give details of the bonding state and electronic structure with the same atomic level resolution.

The undergraduates will be involved in:

• Learning thin sample preparation techniques for TEM using various thinning techniques range from direct polishing to ion milling to Focused Ion Beam processing and basic understanding and operation of TEM.
• Involved with the microscopy and data collection and processing for a quantitative understanding.
• In addition to the direct experimental aspects of this program, students will learn important image simulations.