Fabrication and Microstructure Control of Nanoscale Mechanical Testing Specimens via Electron Beam Lithography and Electroplating
- Creators
- Burek, Michael J.
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Greer, Julia R.
Abstract
It has been demonstrated that the mechanical properties of materials change significantly when external dimensions are confined to the nanoscale. Currently, the dominant fabrication method for mechanical testing specimens with nanometer dimensions is by using focused ion beam (FIB) milling, which results in inevitable Ga+ induced damage to the microstructure. Here, we report a FIB-less fabrication technique to create arrays of vertically oriented gold and copper nanopillars based on patterning polymethylmethacrylate by electron beam lithography and subsequent electroplating into the prescribed template. This fabrication process is capable of producing a wide range of microstructures: from single crystals and nanotwinned, to bi-, poly-, and nanocrystalline mechanical testing specimens with diameters from 750 down to 25 nm with the diameter range below 100 nm previously inaccessible by FIB.
Additional Information
© 2009 American Chemical Society. Received for review: 09/1/2009. Publication Date (Web): December 4, 2009. This research is supported by National Science Foundation CAREER GRANT DMR-0748267. The authors thank Dongchan Jang and Andrew Jennings for their help with TEM operation and analysis. The authors gratefully acknowledge critical support and infrastructure provided for this work by the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 17354
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20100129-133838310
- DMR-0748267
- NSF
- Created
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2010-02-01Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Kavli Nanoscience Institute