NIST researchers are advancing focused-ion-beam (FIB) machining techniques to create complex nanostructures with unprecedented precision and speed. By exploring new materials and processes, they’re able to pattern metallic substrates for plasmonics and combine FIB machining with soft lithography to fabricate nanofluidic devices for high-precision nanoparticle metrology.
The team has developed novel techniques like using sacrificial films to mask ion beam spatial extent, super-resolving nanostructure edges, and increasing volume throughput. They’ve also created 3D standards for super-resolution optical microscopy and nanofluidic replicas that upgrade ordinary optical microscopes into advanced nanoparticle metrology systems.
These advancements could enable new applications in plasmonics, nanofluidics, and optical microscopy, while providing insights into fundamental structure-property relationships for nanoparticles and model nanoplastics. The work represents a significant step forward in FIB machining capabilities and its potential for creating complex nanostructures and metrology standards.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/focused-ion-beam-machining
Keywords: Quantum sensing, Quantum metrology, Quantum devices
