September

Picture of the Month - September 2021

Smart Preparation of Tailored Nanostructures

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is a key technology for the miniaturization of modern microelectronics in computer chips to sub-5 nm device scales to boost their performance while decreasing power consumption. Material is deposited atom layer by atom layer and enables atomic-level thickness control with high conformity. Further, material deposition may be enabled only in specific areas which eliminates alignment errors inherent to conventional approaches.

Recently, the teams of Sangam Chatterjee (Optical Spectroscopy & Materials Deposition), Matthias T. Elm (Physical Chemistry) and Christian Heiliger (Theoretical Physics) have collaborated to provide a new strategy for the smart preparation of tailored nanostructures by area-selective ALD.

They manipulate the surface diffusion of species to form nanostructures with tailored aspect ratios. Titanium oxide (TiO₂) species diffuse on the surface of poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and accumulate at the interface of the growth (SiO₂) and no-growth areas (PMMA). Kinetic Monte-Carlo calculations reveal diffusion as the origin and confirm experimental results.

Controlling the surface diffusion may enable the smart preparation of tailored nanostructures with a wide range of applications in modern microelectronics. The article was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces under DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c22121

This picture was submitted by Philip Klement, AG Prof. Chatterjee.

Further insights into the research activities of the ZfM groups can be found in the Gallery.