Direct atomic fabrication and dopant positioning in Si using electron beams with active real time image-based feedback

Abstract

Semiconductor fabrication is a mainstay of modern civilization, enabling the myriad applications and technologies that underpin everyday life. However, while sub-10 nanometer devices are already entering the mainstream, the end of the Moore's Law roadmap still lacks tools capable of bulk semiconductor fabrication on sub-nanometer and atomic levels, with probe-based manipulation being explored as the only known pathway. Here we demonstrate that the atomic-sized focused beam of a scanning transmission electron microscope can be used to manipulate semiconductors such as Si on the atomic level, inducing growth of crystalline Si from the amorphous phase, reentrant amorphization, milling, and dopant-front motion. These phenomena are visualized in real time with atomic resolution. We further implement active feedback control based on real-time image analytics to control the e-beam motion, enabling shape control and providing a pathway for atom-by-atom correction of fabricated structures in the near future. These observations open a new epoch for atom-by-atom manufacturing in bulk, the long-held dream of nanotechnology.

References in corpus (4)

• Atomically precise placement of single dopants in Si
• Manipulating low-dimensional materials down to the level of single atoms with electron irradiation
• Liquid-liquid transition in supercooled silicon determined by first-principles simulation
• One dimensional Si-in-Si(001) template for single-atom wire growth

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Deep Learning Analysis of Defect and Phase Evolution During Electron Beam Induced Transformations in WS2
• Exploring order parameters and dynamic processes in disordered systems via variational autoencoders
• Manifold Learning of Four-dimensional Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy
• Compressed Sensing of Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) on Non-Rectangular Scans
• Atomic mechanisms for the Si atom dynamics in graphene: chemical transformations at the edge and in the bulk
• Influence of temperature on the displacement threshold energy in graphene
• Mechanism of electron-beam manipulation of single dopant atoms in silicon
• Controlling hydrocarbon transport and electron beam induced deposition on single layer graphene: toward atomic scale synthesis in the scanning transmission electron microscope
• Mapping Conductance and Switching Behavior of Graphene Devices In Situ
• The Synthescope: A Vision for Combining Synthesis with Atomic Fabrication