Leica EBPG 5000+ Electron Beam Lithography system

Electron Beam Lithography sample holder

The Temescal FC-2000 evaporation system

Veeco Atomic Force Microscopy system

Atomic Force Microscope sample stage

Rapid Thermal Annealer

This shows the EBL system, located in the class 100 section of the cleanroom. The EBPG 5000+ allows us to use an electron beam with energies up to 100keV to write patterns in electron beam resist with a resolution better than 50nm across a 0.5mm x0.5mm area. Metal deposition onto the developed resist and subsequent liftoff enables the formation of metal nanophotonic integrated circuits.

One of the four sample stages available for the EBPG. This particular stage can hold irregular or small sample pieces, for example a small silicon chip on which plasmon waveguides will be defined.

The FC-2000 enables the deposition of various materious through either thermal evaporation or electron beam evaporation. We use the system to deposit a thin (<5nm) chrome wetting layer followed by the deposition of gold or silver onto electron beam exposed and developed resist layers. This allows us to define <50nm diameter metal nanostructures onto silicon or ITO coated glass.

The Veeco/DI Dimension 3100 AFM system enables the inspection of the topography of nanophotonic structures with nm resolution. The automated sample stage can handle up to 8" diameter samples.

Close-up of the AFM sample stage. The inclined microscope objective (left) allows imaging of the ATM tip and the sample area being scanned. The vertical beam holds the AFM tip when in use.

The Modular Process Technology RTP 600S enables sample heating at temperatures from 250oC to 1300oC and can raise the sample temperature as fast as 150oC/sec. We use this to induce the growth of silicon nanocrystals in Si-doped SiO2.