Graphene milling dynamics during helium ion beam irradiation

Songkil Kim, Ondrej Dyck, Anton V. Ievlev, Ivan V. Vlassiouk, Sergei V. Kalinin, Alex Belianinov, Stephen Jesse, Olga S. Ovchinnikova

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

We explore the potential of the Helium Ion Microscope (HIM) as a tool for direct-write patterning of graphene and describe the underlying processes of graphene milling with image data processing. Controlled helium ion irradiation of suspended graphene conducted while monitoring the mill in-situ revealed the localized formation of nanopores, their growth, and coalescence. We also explore the effects of defects on the milling dynamics, and show that pre-exposed membranes rupture by cracking and rapid crack propagation at the edges of the growing defects. The mechanism for the rupturing process is described by local defect formation by excessive irradiation of helium ions, dictated by the scanning direction of the beam. These findings enrich fundamental understanding of the graphene milling process with a helium ion beam that, is necessary for high-resolution and high throughput patterning of graphene with nanoscale precision.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)277-282
Number of pages6
JournalCarbon
Volume138
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2018

Funding

This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for the United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

FundersFunder number
U. S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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