RIE/ICP Ion etching tool

• Subject Area: Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: Funded in 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 431858429

A plasma etching tool is requested that will serve to prepare nanostructures of diamond and other semiconductors. Such a tool is presently lacking at the Universität Osnabrück.1. Diamond nanostructures (beams, pillars, etc.) can dramatically enhance the light output of NV color centers in diamond, which are used as quantum sensors for adjacent electron spin systems. Such systems may be endohedral fullerenes, which are produced on site and intended for use as quantum bits for information processing, or spin-labelled molecules that enable local structure elucidation in biological environments. Further spin carrying molecular or inorganic systems — e.g., rare-earth doped nano-particles — can also be investigated with this method.2. Field-effect transistors based on silicon chips with individually contacted carbon nanotubes are actively being investigated. Dry etching protocols would allow to extend this research to tailor individual nanotube devices, by allowing the application of universal marker structures for identifying devices across several processing steps.3. Ultrathin magnetic oxides are being deposited via ultra-clean processes at the department. Lateral patterning of such layers with plasma etching opens new possibilities in classical spintronics, e.g., by engineering skyrmionic structures, but also just by integrating the oxides in contact structures, e.g., for CNT-FET devices where they may serve as spin filter materials.4. Plasma etching as a "top-down" method is an ideal complement to "bottom-up" methods of nano-structuring, which are intensely studied at the Institut für Chemie neuer Materialien (e.g. anodic aluminum oxide, block-copolymers). A combination of both approaches enlarges the spectrum of nanostructures that can be realized, e.g., by replicating precise but costly top-down master structures using innovative processes on a large scale and with high fidelity.5. The etching tool will finally allow very good surface control of wet-chemically processed nano structures, including passivation or functional modifications. This is important, to give an example, to optimize the optical properties of rare-earth upconversion or LiNbO3-based nano-particles.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: RIE/ICP Ionenätzanlage
• Instrumentation Group: 0910 Geräte für Ionenimplantation und Halbleiterdotierung
• Applicant Institution: Universität Osnabrück
• Leader: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Harneit