Scanning Capacitance Microscopy Investigations of Focused Ion Beam Damage in Silicon

In this article, we explore the application of Scanning Capacitance Microscopy (SCM) for studying focused ion beam (FIB) induced damage in silicon. We qualitatively determine the technologically important beam shape by measuring the SCM image of FIB processed implantation spots and by comparison of topographical and SCM data. Further, we investigate the question how deep impinging ions generate measurable damage below the silicon surface. For this purpose, trenches were manufactured using FIB and analyzed by SCM in cross sectional geometry

Quantitative Scanning Capacitance Spectroscopy on GaAs and InAs Quantum Dots

In this work, quantitative scanning capacitance spectroscopy studies on bulk GaAs and InAs quantum dots are carried out in ambient atmosphere. The experimental results are well described by a simple spherical capacitor model, and the corresponding barrier heights and sample dopings are determined from the measured data. We further find a strong dependence of the C(V) data on the applied tip force. The barrier height is decreasing significantly with increasing pressure

Enabling electromechanical transduction in silicon nanowire mechanical resonators fabricated by focused ion beam implantation

We present the fabrication of silicon nanowire (SiNW) mechanical resonators by a resistless process based on focused ion beam local gallium implantation, selective silicon etching and diffusive boron doping. Suspended, doubly clamped SiNWs fabricated by this process presents a good electrical conductivity which enables the electrical read-out of the SiNW oscillation. During the fabrication process, gallium implantation induces the amorphization of silicon that, together with the incorporation of gallium into the irradiated volume, increases the electrical resistivity to values higher than 3 Ω m, resulting in an unacceptably high resistance for electrical transduction. We show that the conductivity of the SiNWs can be restored by performing a high temperature doping process, which allows us to recover the crystalline structure of the silicon and to achieve a controlled resistivity of the structures. Raman spectroscopy and TEM microscopy are used to characterize the recovery of crystallinity, while electrical measurements show a resistivity of 10 Ω m. This resistivity allows to obtain excellent electromechanical transduction, which is employed to characterize the high frequency mechanical response by electrical methods

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Metabolic Network in Mycobacterium vanbaaleniiPYR-1 ▿ †

This study investigated a metabolic network (MN) from Mycobacterium vanbaaleniiPYR-1 for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the perspective of structure, behavior, and evolution, in which multilayer omics data are integrated. Initially, we utilized a high-throughput proteomic analysis to assess the protein expression response of M. vanbaaleniiPYR-1 to seven different aromatic compounds. A total of 3,431 proteins (57.38% of the genome-predicted proteins) were identified, which included 160 proteins that seemed to be involved in the degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons. Based on the proteomic data and the previous metabolic, biochemical, physiological, and genomic information, we reconstructed an experiment-based system-level PAH-MN. The structure of PAH-MN, with 183 metabolic compounds and 224 chemical reactions, has a typical scale-free nature. The behavior and evolution of the PAH-MN reveals a hierarchical modularity with funnel effects in structure/function and intimate association with evolutionary modules of the functional modules, which are the ring cleavage process (RCP), side chain process (SCP), and central aromatic process (CAP). The 189 commonly upregulated proteins in all aromatic hydrocarbon treatments provide insights into the global adaptation to facilitate the PAH metabolism. Taken together, the findings of our study provide the hierarchical viewpoint from genes/proteins/metabolites to the network via functional modules of the PAH-MN equipped with the engineering-driven approaches of modularization and rationalization, which may expand our understanding of the metabolic potential of M. vanbaaleniiPYR-1 for bioremediation applications