Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWSAdvances in ion-surface interaction-driven manufacturing of one-dimensional metal oxide heterostructures
This proposal is dedicated to the exploration of advanced manufacturing methods for the reactive growth of spatially coherent, homogeneous, and high-quality compound one-dimensional nano-heterostructures by principles of oblique angle deposition and assist ion bombardment (iGLAD).
One assist ion source implemented into the fabrication process will be subsequentially operated for i) substrate pre-patterning via ion erosion, ii) control of phase and stoichiometry via reactive ion bombardment, and iii) nanostructure size control via ion figuring. A hypothesis driven approach is employed to investigate nucleation, growth, interface formation, surface patterning and nanostructure crafting for the fabrication of metal oxide nanoheterostructures in correlation to process parameters such as ion energy, ion current density, angle of incidence and ion mass, using ZrO2-MoO3-x as a model substance. In-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry at arbitrary sample positions will be applied to monitor material development during manufacturing in realtime. The advancements of the fabrication process are accompanied by a comprehensive analysis of particle fluxes which are involved in the ion assisted growth process, and by Monte-Carlo based simulations of the particle transport during deposition. If successful, a modified Thornton diagram of microstructure evolution in 1D nanostructures as a function of ion bombardment and oblique particle fluxes will be established. This proposal is based on mutual scientific interest in low-energy reactive ion beam processing for advanced additive manufacturing and combines expertise from Dr. Eva Schubert, Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (U.S.A.) and Dr. Frank Frost, Head of Division for Ion Beam Assisted Patterning and Smoothing at the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM) in Leipzig (Germany). High resolution STEM imaging in combination with EDX elemental analysis will be conducted by Dr. René Feder, Team Manager Hybrid Systems, Fraunhofer-Institute for Microstructures of Materials and Systems IMWS.