Highly charged ion beam applied to lithography technique.

In various fields of nanotechnology, the importance of nanoscale three-dimensional (3D) structures is increasing. In order to develop an efficient process to fabricate nanoscale 3D structures, we have applied highly charged ion (HCI) beams to the ion-beam lithography (IBL) technique. Ar-ion beams with various charge states (1+ to 9+) were applied to fabricate spin on glass (SOG) and Si by means of the IBL technique. The Ar ions were prepared by a facility built at Kochi University of Technology, which includes an electron cyclotron resonance ion source (NANOGAN, 10 GHz). IBL fabrication was performed as a function of not only the charge state but also the energy and the dose of Ar ions. The present results show that the application of an Ar(9+) beam reduces the etching time for SOG and enhances the etching depth compared with those observed with Ar ions in lower charged states. Considering the high-energy deposition of HCI at a surface, the former phenomena can be understood consistently. Also, the latter phenomena can be understood based on anomalously deep structural changes, which are remarkable for glasses. Furthermore, it has also been shown that the etching depth can be easily controlled with the kinetic energy of the Ar ions. These results show the possibilities of the IBL technique with HCI beams in the field of nanoscale 3D fabrication.