Fabrication of nanoarms and nanotips via focused ion beam milling

Abstract

Patterning with ion beams at the nanometer scale has found various important applications in optoelectronics and nanofabrication. During the process of focused ion beam milling, many different effects occur simultaneously, including sputtering, material redeposition, and implantation. Based on the powerful and versatile capability of the focused ion beam technique, we propose a novel method to fabricate nanoarms and nanotips in this work. Using a complex milling process, we show it is possible to manufacture nanoarms in metallic materials by etching the sample at different angles. We also demonstrate the fabrication of nanotips with tapered and uniform profiles, respectively. Our approach may open new opportunities for ion-beam based fabrication of a wide range of optical and electronic nanodevices.