E n o 6 Exploring the Limits of Focused Ion Beam Technology Pico - Inside Review on Non - Contact Atomic Force Microscopy ( NC - AFM )

1500 copies of this issue have been printed. This E-Nano newsletter issue is dedicated to present a review on Non-Contact AFM (NC-AFM) and therefore to provide a better understanding on how to image individual molecules, nanostructures, etc. on surfaces with this technique. Patterning of materials on the nanoscale is currently one of the major challenges for Nanotechnology. The research report presents how Focused Ion Beam technology (FIB) overcomes some basic limitations of current nano-fabrication techniques. We would like to thank all the authors who contributed to this issue as well as the European Union (IST/FET/NANO) for its close collaboration. Finally, we would like to thank you, our readers, for your interest and support and wish you a Happy New Year 2007! The development of tools, techniques and methods for the pa-tterning of materials on the nanoscale is one of the major challenges for nanotechnology. In parallel with the need to develop technologies compatible with mass-production requirements, alternative tools capable to perform rapid prototyping of individual nanodevices are also required. In this article we report on our work aiming to explore the nano-structuring potential of a highly focussed pencil of gallium ions. We show that Focused Ion Beam technology (FIB) is capable of overcoming some basic limitations of current nanofabrication techniques and to allow innovative patterning schemes for nanosciences. 1. Introduction The idea of focusing a pencil of energetic ions to define nanostructure was first mentioned by Feynman in his visionary speech " There is plenty of room at the bottom " [1]. This idea of using ions for nanofabrication was still considered as a pure dream only a few years ago and Focused Ion Beam technology was deemed unable to enter the ambitious " nano " application field. Today, thanks to the support of the European Commission through the FP5 project " NanoFIB " (G5RD-CT2000-00344) [2], we have demonstrated that a dedicated FIB system is able to compete with and even have better global performances than the most advanced top down nanofabrication techniques. This effort allowed us to demonstrate the possibility to use an ultra-sharp probe of particles to build nano-structures using a bottom-up philosophy; grow materials and structures from atomic and molecular building blocks at the level of a few atoms or single molecules. 2. The experimental setup 2.a. Ion Source technology. Historically, the developments of Liquid Metal Ion Sources (LMIS) allowed the development of the FIB technology in …