NER: Nanoparticle Deposition and Implantation: Exploratory Research into a New Method for Making and Modifying Thin Films

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

0103118 Myrick This proposal was received in response to the solicitation "Nanoscale Science and Engineering" (NSF 00-119). This project will explore a novel technique for film formation and implantation that is applicable to vacuum processing of polymers and low-vapor-pressure organic materials. This approach uses accelerated nanoparticles to create films from materials that ordinarily require non-vacuum processing (such as spin-casting) and are thus incompatible with most integrated circuit/semiconductor processing methods. Nanoparticles will be injected into a vacuum chamber by a particle beam interface that employs a supersonic free jet expansion and an electron impact ionization system to charge and accelerate the particles. We will explore whether this interface can be used to deposit nanoparticles with sufficient kinetic energy to instanteously melt the materials on impact. It is hoped that the use of nanoparticles may keep the energy density of the material below the point at which the primary chemical nature of the particle is irreversibly altered. Nanoparticles deposited by settling and acceleration onto surfaces will be studied with surface spectroscopies, probe microscopy and temperature-programmed desorption mass spectroscopy. These studies will inform us about the nature of the materials deposited, whether the nanoparticles have been damaged by deposition/melting, and about the morphologies of the deposits. Molecular dynamics simulations will be performed to develop understanding that may lead to control of deposition. These simulations will be based on the classical method of molecular dynamics simulations by mixing sophisticated many-body potentials with simple pairwise potentials. ***