Cutting nanodisks in graphene down to 20 nm in diameter

Makoto Sakurai; Ayako Omura Okano; Takuya Iwasaki; Christian Joachim

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ad40b5

Cutting nanodisks in graphene down to 20 nm in diameter

Nanotechnology. 2024 May 16;35(31). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad40b5.

Authors

Makoto Sakurai¹, Ayako Omura Okano², Takuya Iwasaki¹, Christian Joachim^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
² Tsukuba University, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan.
³ Centre d'Elaboration de Matériaux et d'Études Structurales (CEMES), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 29 Rue J. Marvig, BP 4347, 31055 Toulouse Cedex, France.

PMID: 38640905
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad40b5

Abstract

A direct focused He⁺beam direct machining is presented to fabricate solid-state nano-disk at the surface of a graphene multilayer micro-flake deposited on an Au/Ti/sapphire surface. At irradiation doses larger than 5.0 × 10¹⁷ions cm^-2and with a beam size well below 1 nm, graphene disks down to 20 nm in diameter have been machined with for nano-disk down to 50 nm in diameter, a central hole for preparing the positioning of a rotation axle. The local heat generated by this irradiation is inducing a partial graphene amorphization and deformation, leading to a complete graphene nano-disk vaporization at doses larger than 5 × 10¹⁸ions cm^-2. A dry transfer printing technique followed by a graphene surface cleaning was used to transfer the nano-disks from its initial surface to a fresh and clean surface. Tapping mode atomic force micrograph have been recorded to follow the vaporization as a function of the He⁺dose to confirm the graphene solid-state nano-disk fabrication limit to about 20 nm with this process.

Keywords: focused He ion beam; graphene; heat generation; scanning helium microscope; solid-state nano-disk; tapping mode AFM.