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NANO MATERIALS
• NanoMaterials are Materials possessing grain size on the order of a billionth of a meter
Properties of Nanomaterials
Exceptionally strong
Hard
Withstands high temperatures
Wear resistant
Erosion resistant
Corrosion resistant
Chemically active
1. BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN APPROACHES
Using the nanotechnology, we can arrange atoms and molecules exactly as we want. In nano
technology, manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of these products depend on
how the atoms are arranged. For example, if we rearrange the atoms in coal, we get diamond. If we
rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a pinch of impurities), we get computer chips.
Manipulation and observation of nanostructures is possible due to the combination of
analytical tools e.g. Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), and Scanning Tunnelling Microscope
(STM), and instruments for refined processes (e.g. Electron Beam Lithography and Molecular
Beam Epitaxy).
Two main approaches are used for the synthesis of nanomaterials and the fabrications of
nanostructures in nanotechnology. They are:
a) Bottom-up approach
b) Top-down approach
The difference between nanotechnology and conventional technology is that, the bottom-up
approach is preferred in nanotechnology, where as conventional technology usually use the topdown
approach. The difference between two approaches can be explained simply by using a example
of powder production, where the chemical synthesis represents the bottom-up approach while the
crushing and milling of chunks represents the equivalent top-down process. An illustration of
the top-down approach vs. the bottom-up approach is shown in Figure 1.
Fig. 2: Bottom-up approach result in particle, nanotube, nanorods, thin films or layers structures.
Examples for Bottom-up approach:
1. Synthesis of large polymer molecule is a typical example for bottom-up approach, in which
individual building blocks (i.e. monomers) are assembled to a large molecule or polymerized
into bulk material.
2. Fabrication of integrated circuits (assembling different components, e.g. resistors, capacitors,
transistors etc) on a PCB.
3. Crystal growth, where growth species either atoms, or ions or molecules orderly assemble into
desired crystal structure on the growth surface.
4. Colloidal dispersion in the synthesis of nanoparticles.
5. Nanolithography and nano-manipulation.
6. Production of salt and nitrate in chemical industry, the growth of single crystals and deposition
of films in electronic industry.
Although such processes provide tremendous freedom among the resultant products, the
number of possible structures to be obtained is comparatively small. In order to obtain the ordered
structures, bottom-up processes must be supplemented by the self-organization of individual
particles, in which the atoms or molecules arrange themselves into a structure due to their natural
properties. Crystals grown for the semiconductor industry provide an example of self assembly, as
does chemical synthesis of large molecules.
Fig. 3: The intended product is obtained by the application of mechanical or chemical processes.
2. PREPARION OF NANOMATERIALS
There are physical as well as chemical methods to prepare nanomaterials. However, the most
powerful methods are the chemical methods.
It can be seen from the following that, for each type, there is a large number of possibilities. The
technique to be used depends on material of interest, type of nanostructures [zero dimensional (0-D),
one dimensional (1-D) or two dimensional (2-D) material], size, quantity etc.
1. Physical methods: Ball milling, Inert gas condensation, Arc discharge, Ion sputtering, Laser
ablation, Spray pyrolysis, Flame pyrolysis, Thermal evaporation, Pulsed laser deposition,
Molecular beam epitaxy.
2. Chemical methods: Metal nanocrystals by reduction, Solvothermal synthesis, Photochemical
synthesis, Electrochemical synthesis, Micelles and Microemulsions, Chemical vapour
deposition (CVD), Sol-gel process.
3. Lithographic techniques: Photolithography, Electron beam and Focused ion beam lithography.
Some of the materials like Co, Cr, W, Ni- Ti, Al-Fe, Ag-Fe etc are made nanocrystalline using
ball mill. Few milligrams to several kilograms of nanoparticles can be synthesized in a short time of
a few minutes to a few hours.
PLANETARY BALL MILL:
Apart from common ball mills (Fig. 4) there is a second type of ball mill called planetary ball
mill (Fig. 5). Planetary ball mills are mainly used in laboratories for grinding sample material down
to very small sizes. A planetary ball mill consists of at least one grinding jar which is arranged
eccentrically on a so-called sun wheel. The direction of movement of the sun wheel is opposite to
that of the grinding jars (ratio: 1:2 or 1:1 or else). The grinding balls in the grinding jars are
subjected to superimposed rotational movements, the so-called coriolis forces. The difference in
speeds between the balls and grinding jars produces an interaction between frictional and impact
forces, which releases high dynamic energies. The interplay between these forces produces the
high and very effective degree of size reduction of the planetary ball mill. Figure 5 shows
schematic of a ball mill in planetary motion. Sketch shows the material thrown against the wall
during the course of rotation of a single container. Dark regions are illustrating the powder
material, while the rest is empty.
NOTE: Key properties of grinding media are size, density, hardness, and composition.
Size: The larger the media particles, the smaller the particle size of the final product. At the same time, the
grinding media particles should be substantially larger than the largest pieces of material to be ground.
Density: The grinding media should be denser than the material to be ground. It becomes a problem if the
grinding media floats on top of the material to be ground.
Hardness: The grinding media needs to be durable enough to grind the material, but where possible should
not be so tough that it also wears down the tumbler at a fast pace.
Composition: Various grinding applications have special requirements. Some of these requirements are
based on the fact that some of the grinding media will be in the finished product. Others are based in how
the media will react with the material being ground.
As soon as electron enters into the magnetic field, it starts moving in a circular path (after
experiencing magnetic force). Here, magnetic force (Fm) balances centripetal force [m(usinθ)2/r:
experienced by a charged particle] while circulating in an orbit of radius "r".
2
m usinθ)
⇒ Fm = Where, "u" is the velocity of a charged particle moving in a circular path of radius "r".
r
2 2 2
Electron moves in a helical path and is able to ionize more atoms in the gas. In practice, both
parallel and perpendicular magnetic fields to the direction of electric field are used to further increase
the ionization of the gas, increasing the efficiency of sputtering. By introducing gases like O 2, N2, NH3,
CH4, H2S etc. while metal targets are sputtered, one can obtain metal oxides like A1 2O3, nitrides like
TiN, carbides like WC etc. This is known as "reactive sputtering".
NOTE: Creating plasma: The terms glow discharge and plasma are often used to mean the same thing.
Plasma is a mixture of free electrons, ions and photons. Plasma in overall is neutral but there can be regions,
which are predominantly f positive or negative charges. One can get plasma in different gases at different
pressures by using DC or AC. Different regions of plasma generated by applying a high DC voltage can be
divided into five regions as:
(i) Cathode or Crook's dark space
(ii) Negative space glow
(iii) Faraday's dark space
(iv) Positive column
Fig. 12: (a) Generation of plasma by applying high voltage between two (v) Anode dark space
electrodes in an evacuated glass tube. (b) Different regions of plasma.
The extent of these regions depends upon the pressure of the gas. The glow discharge in a glass tube with
two electrodes at the end filled with air has following characteristics at different pressures.
In a typical procedure, atoms from solid surface of the target are evaporated by making
powerful laser beam to fall on the surface of the target. These atoms collide with inert gas atoms
(or reactive gases) forming clusters. These clusters are condense on the cooled substrate. The
method is known as laser ablation.
Gas pressure in system is very critical in determining the particle size and distribution.
Simultaneous evaporation of another material and mixing the two evaporated materials in inert gas
leads to the formation of alloys or compounds. This method can produce some novel phases of the
materials, which are not normally formed by other techniques.
For example: Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are mostly synthesized by this method.
2.1.6. SPRAY PYROLYSIS
The word pyrolysis has originated from the Greek words "pyro" (means fire) and
"lysis" (means separating). Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at
elevated temperatures without the participation of oxygen. It involves the simultaneous change of
chemical composition and physical phase of the starting material, and is irreversible.
Spray pyrolysis is basically a solution process and has been widely used in the preparation of
metal and metal oxide powder. The process can be simply described as converting microsized
liquid droplets of precursor (starting source material) or precursor mixture into solid particles
through heating. In practice, spray pyrolysis involves several steps:
1. Generating microsized droplets of liquid precursor or precursor solution
2. Evaporation of solvent
3. Condensation of solute
4. Decomposition and reaction of solute
5. Sintering (heating without melting) of solid particles
Schematic of spray pyrolysis system is shown in the figure 14. Spray pyrolysis is a process in
which a thin film is deposited by spraying a solution on a heated surface, where the constituent
reacts to form a chemical compound. The chemical reactants are selected such that products other
than the desired compound are volatile at the temperature of deposition. The process is particularly
useful for the deposition of oxides and has long been a production method for a long period for
applying a transparent electrical conductor of Tin oxide (SnO2) or Stannic oxide to glass.
Vacuum pump
Fig. 16: Schematic layout of thermal evaporation system.
Advantages: 1. Instrumentation is relatively simple and cheap.
2. Less substrate surface damage.
3. Excellent purity of films.
4. Source material (material to be deposited) can be to different shape depending on the need.
Disadvantages: 1. Limited to low melting point metals, e.g.: Al, Au, Ni, Cr…
2. Fit only for metals, the dielectric material is difficult to melt and evaporate to form thin films.
3. The speed of deposition is very slow.
4. The hardness of the film is not good and the density is poor.
5. The materials that deposit on the wall of the chamber can contaminate later depositions.
6. Sometimes there are problems with film-thickness uniformity and uniform doping over large-
area substrates.
2.1.9. PULSED LASER DEPOSITION
Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is an efficient method to produce thin films by utilizing a
technique called laser ablation. PLD can be used to deposit a wide range of materials from
polymers to metals. PLD is applicable to almost any material, in particular to compounds
(especially multi-element oxides) that are difficult or impossible to produce in thin-films by other
techniques. Examples of such materials include complex ceramic materials such as
hightemperature superconductors and certain magnetic materials [e.g. yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and
ferromagnetic shape-memory (FSM) alloy Ni-Mn-Ga]. PLD was the first technique used to
successfully deposit a superconducting YBa2Cu3O7 thin film.
Typical layout of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system is as shown in the figure 17. In
general, the idea of PLD is simple. A high power pulsed laser beam is focused onto the surface of a
solid target. The strong absorption of the electromagnetic radiation by the solid surface leads to rapid
evaporation of the target material. Finally, the evaporated material get deposited onto the substrate.
The evaporated materials consist of highly excited and ionized species.
Schematic representation of a typical MBE system is shown in figure 18. MBE essentially
consists of an ultra-high vacuum chamber [UHV: ~ 10 −11 mbar] into which a substrate is loaded
onto a heated sample holder. Precursors (i.e. source materials) of desired elements (e.g.: Ga, As,
Al, P, In, etc.) are then loaded into heated crucibles or furnaces called Knudsen cells or effusion
cells, outfitted with computer controlled shutters on their exits. The precursors are then heated such
that, when the shutters are opened, one obtains a beam of atoms directed towards the substrate.
Under such low pressures, the atomic species have very long mean free paths allowing them to
reach the substrate without collisions with other gas phase species in the chamber (i.e. geometrical
size of the chamber is less than the mean free path of the particle). The substrate is sufficiently
heated and frequently rotated to improve the growth homogeneity. By controlling the temperature as
well as the sequence/timing of opening and closing the shutters, one can deposit uniform films of
semiconductor materials.
For example: In solid-source MBE, ultra-pure elements such as gallium and arsenic are heated in
separate effusion cells until they begin to slowly evaporate. The evaporated elements are then
condensed on the wafer, where they may react with each other to form thin film of
singlecrystalline gallium arsenide (GaAs).
Characteristics of MBE: Following are some of the important characteristics of MBE,
1. Low growth rate of ~ 1 monolayer (lattice plane) per sec.
2. Precise control of surface composition and morphology.
3. Grow films with good crystal structure.
4. A very smooth surface and interface is achievable through controlling the growth at the
monoatomic layer level.
5. Low growth temperature (~ 550°C for GaAs). A low growth temperature limits diffusion and
maintains hyper-abrupt interfaces, which are very important in fabricating two-dimensional
nanostructures or multilayer structures such as quantum wells.
Fig. 21: Ternary phase diagram of water (W), oil (O) and surfactant (T) mixture.
Composition can be determined by drawing lines parallel to all three sides of the triangle as
shown in Fig. 21. Here point P denotes 50% water, 25% oil and 25% surfactant. A modified phase
diagram known as "Winsor Diagram" also can be constructed for finer details (not shown here).
The critical micelle concentration (CMC) depends upon all W, O and T concentrations as is
evident from above diagram. As shown in Fig. 22, the effect of T is to reduce the surface tension of
water dramatically below CMC and remain constant above it, as the organic solvent concentration
is kept on increasing. Organic solutes also reduce the surface tension to some small extent. If there
are any electrolytes used, they slightly increase the surface tension.
a) b)
Fig. 24: For surfactant molecules γ decreases rapidly upto certain concentration known as critical miceller
concentration (c.m.c.).
Fig. 19: Basic concepts of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process and CVD chamber.
Gas or Vapours of desired material may be often pumped into reaction chamber using some
carrier gas (Fig. 19). In some cases the reactions may occur through aerosol formation in gas
phase. There are various processes such as reduction of gas, chemical reaction between different
source gases, oxidation or some disproportionate reaction by which CVD can proceed. However, it
is preferable that the reaction occurs at the substrate rather than in the gas phase. Usually
temperature ~ 300 to l200°C is used at the substrate and gas pressures in the range of 0.1 torr to l.0
torr are used. Growth rate and film quality depend upon the gas pressure and the substrate
temperature. When the growth takes place at low temperature, it is limited by the kinetics of
surface reaction. At intermediate temperature, it is limited by mass transport, i.e. supply of reacting
gases to the substrate. Here the reaction is faster and supply of reactants is slower. At high
temperature, growth rate reduces due to desorption of precursors from the substrate.
GROWTH MECHANISMS:
When two types of atoms or molecules, say P and Q, are involved in the desired thin film
formation, then there are two mechanisms by which growth can take place.
A. Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism: Both P and Q type of atoms/molecules are adsorbed on
the substrate surface and interact there to produce PQ. When one species is adsorbed in excess
of the other, the growth depends on the availability of adsorption sites for both P and Q as
shown in a schematic diagram Fig. 20.
Fig. 22: (a) sol, (b) gel and monolithic solid (aerogel).
Sol-gel method is particularly useful to synthesize glass materials, ceramics or metal oxides
although sulphides, borides and nitrides also are possible. Nowadays the sol-gel process is quite
often used for the fabrication of a variety of nanomaterials. Usually metal alkoxides and metal
chlorides are used as precursors. Figure 23 shows the typical sol-gel process.
2.3. LITHOGRAPHY
Mainly, there are two approaches for the fabrication of nanomaterials, bottom-up and topdown
approaches. In the earlier sections of this chapter, we have seen few methods to make
nanoparticles and thin films (or multilayers) [e.g. sputtering, CVD, thermal evaporation, pulsed laser
deposition, molecular beam epitaxy etc]. These methods are popularly known as bottom-up
approach. In bottom-up approach, atoms and molecules are assembled so as to form nanomaterials of
required size and shape by controlled deposition or reaction parameters. In top-down approach,
usually a bulk material is taken and machined to modify into the desired size, shape and product.
Ball milling is an example of top-down approach.
Lithography may be considered as a hybrid approach because growth is bottom-up while
etching is top-down. But nanolithography is commonly a bottom-up approach. Both approaches
play a very important role in nanotechnology. There are advantages and disadvantages in both
approaches. The imperfection of the surface structure is the drawback of top-down approach. For
instance, in lithographic techniques the processed patterns contain crystallographic damages in
addition to the defects which occur during the etching process. Such imperfections would have a
significant impact on physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials, since their surface to
volume ratio is very large.
The word lithography has originated from Greek words "litho" (which means stone) and
"gramma" (which means writing). Therefore, lithography literally means carving a stone or writing
on a stone. Now, it is used to mean a process in which a sample is patterned by removing some
part of it (i.e. etching) or sometimes even organizing some material on a suitable substrate.
Lithography is very extensively used in electronics industry to obtain integrated circuits (IC) or
very large scale integration (VLSI) on small piece of semiconductor substrate often called a "chip".
Over the last 3-4 decades, different lithography techniques like photolithography, X-ray
lithography, electron beam lithography and some others have been developed. They depend upon
using photons or particle radiations for carving the materials. The lithography technique involves
transfer of some pre-designed geometrical pattern (called master or mask) on a semiconductor (like
silicon) or directly patterning (often known as writing) using suitable radiation. Mask is usually
prepared by creating radiation opaque and transparent regions on glass or some other material.
Predesigned patterns can be transferred on a substrate much faster as compared to direct writing.
Direct writing being a slower process is overall expensive.
PRINCIPLE AND PRODUCE OF LITHOGRAPHY:
Common principle in most of the lithography techniques is to expose a material sensitive to
either electromagnetic radiation or to particles at some regions. Such a radiation sensitive material
is known as resist. The selection of area is made using a mask which is transparent in some regions
and opaque in the other regions. This causes selective exposure of the resist, making it weaker or
stronger compared to unexposed material depending upon the type of the resist being used. By
removing the exposed or unexposed material in suitable chemicals or plasma, desired pattern is
obtained. This may be done in a number of steps depending upon the pattern and materials
involved.
Fig. 24 depicts schematically various steps involved in photolithography to transfer a pattern
on the surface of some semiconductor. A thin film coating of a metal (e.g. chromium) is deposited on
a suitable substrate (e.g. glass or silicon). A positive or a negative photo-resist (usually some
polymer) is coated on metal thin film. Positive photo-resist material has the property that, when
exposed to the appropriate radiation it degrades or some chemical bonds are broken. Negative
resist on the other hand is a material, which hardens (cross-links) on exposure to a radiation. A mask
is placed between the resist coated substrate and the source of light. By using a suitable chemical
(developer), the weakened portion is removed (or image is developed). Remaining unexposed
part also can be removed by appropriate chemical treatment. The remaining material can be dissolved
in one step and the hardened material in another step.
Depending on the radiation used like visible light, X-rays, electrons, ions etc. the lithography
name is tagged with it.
Fig. 24: Photolithography process steps: (1) surface is coated with metal, (2) coating of photo-
resist on the substrate, (3) mask placed over upper layer, (4) exposed to UV radiation, (5)
resist development and striping and (6) etching to get final pattern.
2.3.1. PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY
It is possible to use visible, ultraviolet, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or X-rays to perform
lithography and wherever possible lasers are also used. Highest resolution of the generated features
ultimately depends upon the wavelength of radiation used and interaction of radiation with matter
as well as mask and optical elements used. Smaller the wavelength used smaller can be the feature
size which is limited by diffraction limit, ~ λ/2. Depth of focus depends upon the penetration of
incident radiation. For the lithography using electromagnetic radiation, optical elements and masks
have to be used for various purposes. In the visible range (~700 nm to 400 nm) glass lenses and
masks can be used. In the UV range fused silica or calcium fluoride lenses are used.
There are three methods (see Fig. 25) viz. "proximity", "contact" and "projection" which can
be used to pattern a substrate.
Fig. 25: (1) mask is close to the photo-resist, (2) mask is in contact with the resist and (3) focused
beam is scanned through the mask.
As the name suggests, in 'proximity' method, mask is held close to the photo-resist coated
metalized substrate, whereas in 'contact' method the mask is in contact with photo-resist. In both
proximity and contact methods a parallel beam of light fal1s on the mask, which transmits the
radiation through some windows but blocks through opaque parts. Although better resolution is
achieved with contact method as compared to proximity method, in contact method the mask gets
damaged faster. In case of 'projection' method a focused beam is scanned through the mask, which
allows good resolution to be achieved along with the reduced damage of the mask. However,
scanning is a slow process and also requires scanning mechanism adding to the cost.
LITHOGRAPHY USING UV LIGHT AND LASER BEAMS
Using monochromatic light in the visible to UV range features as small as 1 to 1.5 µm size can
be routinely obtained. Often g-line [i.e. green colour] (436 nm) from mercury lamp is used. Laser
beam of KrF (248 nm) or ArF (193 nm) also are employed reaching ~150 nm as the smallest
feature size. However to obtain feature size below ~ 100 nm using photons is a difficult task.
LITHOGRAPHY USING X-RAY
Smaller features are possible to obtain by employing X-rays also. However, it is difficult to
make suitable masks for X-ray lithography. X-rays in the 0.1 to 5 nm range are used with
appropriate metal masks in proximate geometry. Absorption of X-rays in materials not only
depends upon the thickness of the material but is also complicated by the presence of absorption
edges. Depending upon the wavelength of X-rays used, metals of suitable elements are chosen.
Metal masks are fabricated in such a way that through thin portions rays are transmitted and
absorbed in thicker regions. Gold masks are often used. The masks themselves are made using
electron beam lithography discussed in the next section.
2.3.2. PARTICLE BEAM LITHOGRAPHY
We know that, all the moving particles have associated wavelength λ known as de Broglie
wavelength given by,
h
λ=
mv
Where h is Planck's constant, m is the mass and v is the velocity of the particle. All kinds of
particles can in principle be used. But to achieve high resolution λ should be as small as possible.
Thus, large mass and large velocity of particle makes it possible to get adequate resolution. In fact
it is possible using neutral atoms, ions or electrons to bring down the particle associated
wavelength to any desired value, even as small as 0.1 nm. However, ultimate resolution depends
upon the interaction of incident particles with resist material. Under certain conditions, features as
small as 2 nm have been patterned. Due to various reasons like electrons can be easily generated,
accelerated and focused, electrons are preferred for lithography purpose and often used.
ELECTRON BEAM LITHOGRAPHY
Figure 26 shows schematically electron beam lithography set up. It is very similar to a
scanning electron microscope (SEM) and requires vacuum (~ 10 −5 torr). Sometimes SEM is
modified in order to use it as a lithography set up. Electron beam lithography is a direct writing
method, i.e. no mask is required to generate a pattern. Rather, patterns or masters required for other
lithography processes (like optical lithography and soft lithography) can be generated using
electron beam lithography.
Electrons with high energy (usually larger than ~ 5 keV) are incident on the photo-resist. Here
also positive or negative photo-resists can be used. Common positive resists are poly-methyl-
methacrylate (PMMA) and polybutane-l-sulphone (PBS). Negative resist often used in
electron beam lithography is poly-glycidyl-methacrylate co-ethyl-acrylate (COP).
Developers used are methyl-isobutyl-ketone (MIBK) and isopropylalcohol (IPA) in 1:1 ratio.
A focused electron beam in electron beam lithography is used in two modes, viz. 'vector scan'
or 'raster scan'. In vector scan, the electron beam 'writes' on some specified region. After
one region is completed the X-Y scanning stage on which the substrate to be patterned is
mounted moves. During its movement electron beam is put off. Then a new region is selected
and'written' with the beam. This is continued until whole pattern is generated. In 'raster
scan'thebeamis
rastered or moved continuously over a small area, line by line. The X-Y stage of the sample
moves at right angles to the beam. The beam is turned off or turned on depending upon
thepattern.
Although very high resolution (~50 nm) is routinely possible using this lithography, due
to scanning mode it is rather slow. For example, if the optical lithography can generate 40
patterns with 1µm resolution in one hour, only five similar patterns would be generated with
electronbeam.
However, larger layer depth is an added attraction of electron beam lithography as compared
to optical beam lithography.
ION BEAM LITHOGRAPHY
Very small features (~5-10 nm) can be written using high-energy ion beams. Major
advantages of using ion beams is that resists are more sensitive to ions as compared to
electrons and have low scattering in the resist as well as from the substrate. Commonly
used ions are He+, Ga+ etc. with energy in the 100-300 keV range.