Switchable resolution in soft x-ray tomography of single cells.

The diversity of living cells, in both size and internal complexity, calls for imaging methods with adaptable spatial resolution. Soft x-ray tomography (SXT) is a three-dimensional imaging technique ideally suited to visualizing and quantifying the internal organization of single cells of varying sizes in a near-native state. The achievable resolution of the soft x-ray microscope is largely determined by the objective lens, but switching between objectives is extremely time-consuming and typically undertaken only during microscope maintenance procedures. Since the resolution of the optic is inversely proportional to the depth of focus, an optic capable of imaging the thickest cells is routinely selected. This unnecessarily limits the achievable resolution in smaller cells and eliminates the ability to obtain high-resolution images of regions of interest in larger cells. Here, we describe developments to overcome this shortfall and allow selection of microscope optics best suited to the specimen characteristics and data requirements. We demonstrate that switchable objective capability advances the flexibility of SXT to enable imaging cells ranging in size from bacteria to yeast and mammalian cells without physically modifying the microscope, and we demonstrate the use of this technology to image the same specimen with both optics

Soft X-Ray Imaging of spin dynamics at high spatial and temporalresolution

Soft X-ray microscopy provides element specific magnetic imaging with a spatial resolution down to 15nm. At XM-1, the full-field soft X-ray microscope at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, a stroboscopic pump and probe setup has been developed to study fast magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic elements with a time resolution of 70ps which is set by the width of the X-ray pulses from the synchrotron. Results obtained with a 2 {micro}m x 4 {micro}m x 45nm rectangular permalloy sample exhibiting a seven domain Landau pattern reveal dynamics up to several nsec after the exciting magnetic field pulse. Domain wall motion, a gyrotropic vortex motion, and a coupling between vortices in the rectangular geometry are observed

Understanding the mechanism of base development of hydrogen silsesquioxane

There have been numerous studies of electron beam exposed hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) development conditions in order to improve the developer contrast. For TMAH based development, improvements were made by going to higher TMAH normalities and heating the developer. Yang and Berggren showed development of electron beam exposed (HSQ) by NaOH with added Na salts (various anions) significantly improves the contrast. Here, we study the contrast and etching rates of 100 keV exposed HSQ in NaOH in the presence of LiCl, NaCl, and KCl salts and use this as a segway to understand the mechanisms governing contrast during development HSQ development. The basic mechanism of development of HSQ can be understood by comparing to etching of quartz in basic solutions. Hydroxide ions act as nucleophiles which attack silicon. When a silicon-oxygen bond of the Si-O-Si matrix is broken, Si-O{sup -} and Si-OH are formed which can reversibly react to form the original structure. When a Si-H bond is broken via reaction with hydroxide, Si-O{sup -} and H{sub 2} gas are formed. Salts can change the etching rates as a function of dose in a non-linear fashion to increase etch contrast. Figs. 1, 2, and 3 show contrast curves for HSQ developed in 0.25 N sodium hydroxide and with the addition of NaCl, LiCl and KCl salts at several concentrations. NaCl addition resulted in the highest contrast. Contrast improves with additional salt concentration while sensitivity decreases. Interestingly enough, addition of salt decreases the removal of material of NaOH alone at higher doses while increasing the rate at lower concentrations. Addition of LiCl salts improves contrast over NaOH alone. Furthermore, the sensitivity at all doses increases as the LiCl concentration increases, a salting out effect. Similar to NaCl salt behavior, the addition of KCl salts, improves contrast at the expense of sensitivity. However, unlike NaCl, even at very high doses, KCl addition increases removal rate of HSQ. We propose explanations for these results by considering the change of nucleophilic strength of the OH{sup -} as a function of cation size and concentration, the ability for salts to block the surface etching, competition between bond breakage and recombination, and the density of the HSQ as a function of dose. Furthermore, we will discuss evolution of contrast as a function of development time in the context of our models

Sub-nanosecond signal propagation in anisotropy engineered nanomagnetic logic chains

Energy efficient nanomagnetic logic (NML) computing architectures propagate and process binary information by relying on dipolar field coupling to reorient closely-spaced nanoscale magnets. Signal propagation in nanomagnet chains of various sizes, shapes, and magnetic orientations has been previously characterized by static magnetic imaging experiments with low-speed adiabatic operation; however the mechanisms which determine the final state and their reproducibility over millions of cycles in high-speed operation (sub-ns time scale) have yet to be experimentally investigated. Monitoring NML operation at its ultimate intrinsic speed reveals features undetectable by conventional static imaging including individual nanomagnetic switching events and systematic error nucleation during signal propagation. Here, we present a new study of NML operation in a high speed regime at fast repetition rates. We perform direct imaging of digital signal propagation in permalloy nanomagnet chains with varying degrees of shape-engineered biaxial anisotropy using full-field magnetic soft x-ray transmission microscopy after applying single nanosecond magnetic field pulses. Further, we use time-resolved magnetic photo-emission electron microscopy to evaluate the sub-nanosecond dipolar coupling signal propagation dynamics in optimized chains with 100 ps time resolution as they are cycled with nanosecond field pulses at a rate of 3 MHz. An intrinsic switching time of 100 ps per magnet is observed. These experiments, and accompanying macro-spin and micromagnetic simulations, reveal the underlying physics of NML architectures repetitively operated on nanosecond timescales and identify relevant engineering parameters to optimize performance and reliability.Comment: Main article (22 pages, 4 figures), Supplementary info (11 pages, 5 sections

Disorder Operator and R\'enyi Entanglement Entropy of Symmetric Mass Generation

In recent years a consensus has gradually been reached that the previously proposed deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) for spin-1/2 systems, an archetypal example of quantum phase transition beyond the classic Landau's paradigm, actually does not correspond to a true unitary conformal field theory (CFT). In this work we carefully investigate another type of quantum phase transition supposedly beyond the similar classic paradigm, the so called ``symmetric mass generation" (SMG) transition proposed in recent years. We employ the sharp diagnosis including the scaling of disorder operator and R\'enyi entanglement entropy in large-scale lattice model quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Our results strongly suggest that the SMG transition is indeed an unconventional quantum phase transition and it should correspond to a true $(2+1)d$ unitary CFT.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

The link between a negative high resolution resist contrast/developer performance and the Flory-Huggins parameter estimated from the Hansen solubility sphere

We have implemented a technique to identify candidate polymer solvents for spinning, developing, and rinsing for a high resolution, negative electron beam resist hexa-methyl acetoxy calix(6)arene to elicit the optimum pattern development performance. Using the three dimensional Hansen solubility parameters for over 40 solvents, we have constructed a Hansen solubility sphere. From this sphere, we have estimated the Flory Huggins interaction parameter for solvents with hexa-methyl acetoxy calix(6)arene and found a correlation between resist development contrast and the Flory-Huggins parameter. This provides new insights into the development behavior of resist materials which are necessary for obtaining the ultimate lithographic resolution

A General and Predictive Understanding of Thermal Transport from 1D- and 2D-Confined Nanostructures : Theory and Experiment

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICHeat management is crucial in the design of nanoscale devices as the operating temperature determines their efficiency and lifetime. Past experimental and theoretical works exploring nanoscale heat transport in semiconductors addressed known deviations from Fourier's law modeling by including effective parameters, such as a size-dependent thermal conductivity. However, recent experiments have qualitatively shown behavior that cannot be modeled in this way. Here, we combine advanced experiment and theory to show that the cooling of 1D- and 2D-confined nanoscale hot spots on silicon can be described using a general hydrodynamic heat transport model, contrary to previous understanding of heat flow in bulk silicon. We use a comprehensive set of extreme ultraviolet scatterometry measurements of nondiffusive transport from transiently heated nanolines and nanodots to validate and generalize our ab initio model, that does not need any geometry-dependent fitting parameters. This allows us to uncover the existence of two distinct time scales and heat transport mechanisms: an interface resistance regime that dominates on short time scales and a hydrodynamic-like phonon transport regime that dominates on longer time scales. Moreover, our model can predict the full thermomechanical response on nanometer length scales and picosecond time scales for arbitrary geometries, providing an advanced practical tool for thermal management of nanoscale technologies. Furthermore, we derive analytical expressions for the transport time scales, valid for a subset of geometries, supplying a route for optimizing heat dissipation