Creation and Evaluation of Atomically Ordered Side- and Facet-Surface Structures of Three-Dimensional Silicon Nano-Architectures

The realization of three-dimensional (3D)-architected nanostructures, that is, the transformation from novel two-dimensional (2D) film-based devices to 3D complex nanodevices, is of crucial importance with the progress of scaling down devices to nanometer order. However, little attention has been devoted to controlling the atomic ordering and structures of side-surfaces on 3D structures, while techniques for controlling and investigating 2D surfaces, namely, surface science, have been established only for planar 2D surfaces. We have established an original methodology that enables atomic orderings and arrangements of surfaces with arbitrary directions to be observed on 3D figured structures by developing diffraction and microscopy techniques. An original technique, namely, directly and quantitatively viewing the side- and facet-surfaces at the atomic scale by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), can be used to determine process parameters in etching. This chapter introduces methods of evaluation by RHEED and LEED based on a reciprocal space map and methods of creating various atomically flat 111 and {100} side-surfaces of 3D Si nano-architectures and tilted 111 facet-surfaces fabricated by lithography dry and wet etching processes, followed by annealing treatment in vacuum

Non-contact detection of nanoscale structures using optical nanofiber

The detection of nanoscale structure/material property in a wide observation area is becoming very important in various application fields. However, it is difficult to utilize current optical technologies. Toward the realization of novel alternative, we have investigated a new optical sensing method using an optical nanofiber. When the nanofiber vertically approached a glass prism with a partial gold film, the material differences between the glass and the gold were detected as a transmittance difference of 6% with a vertical resolution of 9.6 nm. The nanofiber was also scanned 100 nm above an artificial small protruding object with a width of 240 nm. The object was detected with a horizontal resolution of 630 nm, which was less than the wavelength of the probe light

Investigation of Statistical Metal-Insulator Transition Properties of Electronic Domains in Spatially Confined VO2 Nanostructure

Functional oxides with strongly correlated electron systems, such as vanadium dioxide, manganite, and so on, show a metal-insulator transition and an insulator-metal transition (MIT and IMT) with a change in conductivity of several orders of magnitude. Since the discovery of phase separation during transition processes, many researchers have been trying to capture a nanoscale electronic domain and investigate its exotic properties. To understand the exotic properties of the nanoscale electronic domain, we studied the MIT and IMT properties for the VO2 electronic domains confined into a 20 nm length scale. The confined domains in VO2 exhibited an intrinsic first-order MIT and IMT with an unusually steep single-step change in the temperature dependent resistivity (R-T) curve. The investigation of the temperature-sweep-rate dependent MIT and IMT properties revealed the statistical transition behavior among the domains. These results are the first demonstration approaching the transition dynamics: the competition between the phase-transition kinetics and experimental temperature-sweep-rate in a nano scale. We proposed a statistical transition model to describe the correlation between the domain behavior and the observable R-T curve, which connect the progression of the MIT and IMT from the macroscopic to microscopic viewpoints

Spatial Analytical Surface Structure Mapping for Three-dimensional Micro-shaped Si by Micro-beam Reflection High-energy Electron Diffraction

Spatially arranged surfaces on the micro-rod structure, which was three-dimensionally (3D) architected on a Si(110) substrate have been thoroughly investigated by a system with micro-beam reflection high-energy electron diffraction (μ-RHEED) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The combination of μ-RHEED and SEM realized analytical structure investigation of 3D surfaces with the spatial resolution of sub micrometer for the 3D rectangular shaped rod consisting of a (110) top surface (20 μm wide) and {111} vertical side surfaces (10 μm wide). Exhaustive mapping revealed the peculiar reconstructed surface structures: Si(110) “16 × 2” single domain and {35 47 7} facet surfaces locally appeared on the interconnected edge region on the 3D structure in addition to the “16 × 2” and 7 × 7 super structures on flat top (110) and side {111} surfaces, respectively. The formation mechanism for “16 × 2” single-domain structure near the corner edge of the (110) surfaces and {35 47 7} facets on the corner edges between (110) and {111} surfaces were discussed from the viewpoint of the surface stability on the 3D geometrical shaped Si structure

Arrangement of self-assembled ZnO-NiO nanostructures using topographical templates towards oxide directed self-assembly

Self-assembled oxide composite nanostructures offer novel functionalities and three-dimensional architectures, such as vertical pillars and matrix structures. One of the challenges in this field is to precisely control the positional arrangement of oxide pillars embedded in a matrix. Here, we report on an early proof-of-concept demonstration for positioning and arranging self-assembled NiO pillars in a ZnO matrix. SrTiO3 templates with artificial line groove patterns were fabricated by nanoimprint lithography (NIL). High-density NiO pillars were observed on both sides of the template line edges as well as a single array of NiO pillars in the middle of each line groove for a 90 nm line width. This simple technique provides a path towards the development of nanoscale design and applications for memory devices