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Characterization of dilute species within CVD‐grown silicon nanowires doped using trimethylboron: protected lift‐out specimen preparation for atom probe tomography
Author(s) -
PROSA T. J.,
ALVIS R.,
TSAKALAKOS L.,
SMENTKOWSKI V. S.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.2010.03375.x
Subject(s) - atom probe , nanowire , silicon , materials science , secondary ion mass spectrometry , characterization (materials science) , mass spectrometry , doping , analytical chemistry (journal) , ion , atom (system on chip) , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , chemistry , chromatography , organic chemistry , transmission electron microscopy , computer science , embedded system
Summary Three‐dimensional quantitative compositional analysis of nanowires is a challenge for standard techniques such as secondary ion mass spectrometry because of specimen size and geometry considerations; however, it is precisely the size and geometry of nanowires that makes them attractive candidates for analysis via atom probe tomography. The resulting boron composition of various trimethylboron vapour–liquid–solid grown silicon nanowires were measured both with time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and pulsed‐laser atom probe tomography. Both characterization techniques yielded similar results for relative composition. Specialized specimen preparation for pulsed‐laser atom probe tomography was utilized and is described in detail whereby individual silicon nanowires are first protected, then lifted out, trimmed, and finally wet etched to remove the protective layer for subsequent three‐dimensional analysis.