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The focused ion beam technique has become widespread for the formation of micro- and nanostructures on substrates made of different materials. The principle of this technique is that a narrow probe of gallium ions travels across the surface of a sample and, stopping at specific points, locally removes material through sputtering. The characteristics of focused ion beam sputtering significantly depend on the chosen strategy of ion beam scanning motion. In this work, to identify sputtering characteristics the standard multipass and line-by-line scanning strategies were used. The studies of the fabricated rectangular boxes with lateral dimensions from 100 nm to 20 μm and depths from 30 to 700 nm were performed using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis. It was revealed that the transition from multipass to line-by-line scanning makes it possible to reduce the concentration of implanted gallium from 25 to 20 at. % under conditions of smooth milling of the sample material and from 45 to 6 at. % during its edge milling. It has been demonstrated by the example of large-size boxes that the use of the line-by-line scanning strategy allows for an approximately 6-fold increase in the effective sputtering yield of the material by the ion beam and a decrease in the thickness of the amorphized layer of the irradiated silicon substrate by approximately 25 %. It was shown that a decrease in the concentration of implanted gallium atoms during edge milling occurs at thermal annealing of the structures. The application of the proposed technique will make it possible to form micro- and nanostructures with a low content of gallium atoms in the near-surface region.

Key words: focused ion beam, sputtering, silicon, electron microscopy
Published in: FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCHES
Bibliography link: Rumyantsev A. V., Borgardt N. I., Volkov R. L. Focused ion beam scanning strategy effect on the silicon sputtering process during the formation of micro- and nanostructures. Izv.vuzov. Elektronika = Proc. Univ. Electronics. 2025;30(4):400–410. (InRuss.).https://doi.org/10.24151/1561-5405-2025-30-4-400-410.
Financial source: the work has been supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 23-19-00649) using the equipment of the Collective-Use Center “Diagnostics and Modification of Microstructures and Nanoobjects”.

Alexander V. Rumyantsev
National Research University of Electronic Technology (Russia, 124498, Moscow, Zelenograd, Shokin sq., 1)

Nikolay I. Borgardt
National Research University of Electronic Technology (Russia, 124498, Moscow, Zelenograd, Shokin sq., 1)

Roman L. Volkov
National Research University of Electronic Technology (Russia, 124498, Moscow, Zelenograd, Shokin sq., 1)

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Information about the publication

UDK: 537.534.35
Publication type: Scientific article
Source lang: Russian
DOI: 10.24151/1561-5405-2025-30-4-400-410
RISC id: AUZTAG

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