Peter V. Bedworth

Nano-Sculpting of Suspended CVD Graphene with Helium and Neon Ion Beams

The ability to precisely modify graphene is critical to a variety of application spaces, ranging from nanoscale electronics to chemical sensors [1,2]. The recent development and production of gas field ion source (GFIS) systems yields new opportunities for fabricating sub-10nm feature sizes within graphene sheets, as demonstrated by the etching of suspended graphene nanodevices with a helium ion beam [3]. However, the precision-controlled nanoscale-sculpting of graphene layers is challenging, as complex and interactive milling mechanisms, such as knock-on displacement, electronic interactions, and thermal processes, compete with self-healing and beam-induced deposition.