Mitigating challenges in aberration-corrected electron-beam lithography on electron-opaque substrates.

Aberration-corrected electron-beam lithography (AC-EBL) using ultra-thin electron transparent membranes has achieved single-digit nanometer resolution in two widely used electron-beam resists: poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and hydrogen silsesquioxane. On the other hand, AC-EBL implementation on thick, electron-opaque substrates is appealing for conventional top-down fabrication of quantum devices with nanometer-scale features. To investigate the performance of AC-EBL on thick substrates, we measured the lithographic point spread function of a 200 keV aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope by defining both positive and negative patterns in PMMA thin films, spin-cast on thick SiO2/Si substrates. We present the problems encountered during pre-exposure beam focusing and discuss methods to overcome them. In addition, applying some of these methods using commercial 50 nm thick SiNXmembranes with thick Si support frames, we printed arrays of holes in PMMA with pitches around 26 nm on SiNX/Si substrates with increasing Si thickness. Our results show that proximity effects from even 50 nm thick SiNXmembranes limit hole arrays to 20 nm pitch; however, down to this limit, the effect of the substrate thickness on the pattern quality is minimal. These results highlight the need for novel resists less susceptible to proximity effects, or resists which can be used directly, after development, as the dielectric material in periodic gates in 2D quantum devices.

Single-Digit Nanometer Electron-Beam Lithography with an Aberration-Corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope.

We demonstrate extension of electron-beam lithography using conventional resists and pattern transfer processes to single-digit nanometer dimensions by employing an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope as the exposure tool. Here, we present results of single-digit nanometer patterning of two widely used electron-beam resists: poly (methyl methacrylate) and hydrogen silsesquioxane. The method achieves sub-5 nanometer features in poly (methyl methacrylate) and sub-10 nanometer resolution in hydrogen silsesquioxane. High-fidelity transfer of these patterns into target materials of choice can be performed using metal lift-off, plasma etch, and resist infiltration with organometallics.

Charge disproportionation in tetragonal La2MoO5, a small band gap semiconductor influenced by direct Mo-Mo bonding.

The structure of the novel compound La2MoO5 has been solved from powder X-ray and neutron diffraction data and belongs to the tetragonal space group P4/m (no. 83) with a = 12.6847(3) Å and c = 6.0568(2) Å and with Z = 8. It consists of equal proportions of bioctahedral (Mo2O10) and square prismatic (Mo2O8) dimers, both of which contain direct Mo-Mo bonds and are arranged in 1D chains. The Mo-Mo bond length in the Mo2O10 dimers is 2.684(8) Å, while there are two types of Mo2O8 dimers with Mo-Mo bonds lengths of 2.22(2) and 2.28(2) Å. Although the average Mo oxidation state in La2MoO5 is 4+, the very different Mo-Mo distances reflect the fact that the Mo2O10 dimers contain only Mo(5+) (d(1)), while the prismatic Mo2O8 dimers only contain Mo(3+) (d(3)), a result directly confirmed by density function theory calculations. This is due to the complete disproportionation of Mo(4+), a phenomenon which has not previously been observed in solid-state compounds. La2MoO5 is diamagnetic, behavior which is not expected for a nonmetallic transition-metal oxide whose cation sites have an odd number of d-electrons. The resistivity displays the Arrhenius-type activated behavior expected for a semiconductor with a band gap of 0.5 eV, exhibiting an unusually small transport gap relative to other diamagnetic oxides. Diffuse reflectance studies indicate that La2MoO5 is a rare example of a stable oxide semiconductor with strong infrared absorbance. It is shown that the d-orbital splitting associated with the Mo2O8 and Mo2O10 dimeric units can be rationalized using simple molecular orbital bonding concepts.

Sample preparation of energy materials for X-ray nanotomography with micromanipulation.

X-ray nanotomography presents an unprecedented opportunity to study energy storage/conversion materials at nanometer scales in three dimensions, with both elemental and chemical sensitivity. A critical step in obtaining high-quality X-ray nanotomography data is reliable sample preparation to ensure that the entire sample fits within the field of view of the X-ray microscope. Although focused-ion-beam lift-out has previously been used for large sample (few to tens of microns) preparation, a difficult undercut and lift-out procedure results in a time-consuming sample preparation process. Herein, we propose a much simpler and direct sample preparation method to resolve the issues that block the view of the sample base after milling and during the lift-out process. This method is applied on a solid-oxide fuel cell and a lithium-ion battery electrode, before numerous critical 3D morphological parameters are extracted, which are highly relevant to their electrochemical performance. A broad application of this method for microstructure study with X-ray nanotomography is discussed and presented.

Characterization of plasmonic hole arrays as transparent electrical contacts for organic photovoltaics using high-brightness Fourier transform methods.

We present a methodology for probing light-matter interactions in prototype photovoltaic devices consisting of an organic semiconductor active layer with a semitransparent metal electrical contact exhibiting surface plasmon-based enhanced optical transmission. We achieve high-spectral irradiance in a spot size of less than 100 µm using a high-brightness laser-driven light source and appropriate coupling optics. Spatially resolved Fourier transform photocurrent spectroscopy in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions allows us to measure external quantum efficiency with high sensitivity in small-area devices (<1 mm2). This allows for rapid fabrication of variable-pitch sub-wavelength hole arrays in metal films for use as transparent electrical contacts, and evaluation of the evanescent and propagating mode coupling to resonances in the active layer.