Thermal Conductivity Enhancement in Ion-Irradiated Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon Films.

Amorphous solids are traditionally assumed to set the lower bound to the vibrational thermal conductivity of a material due to the high degree of structural disorder. Here, were demonstrate the ability to increase the thermal conductivity of amorphous solids through ion irradiation, in turn, altering the bonding network configuration. We report on the thermal conductivity of hydrogenated amorphous carbon implanted with C+ ions spanning fluences of 3 × 1014-8.6 × 1014 cm-2 and energies of 10-20 keV. Time-domain thermoreflectance measurements of the films' thermal conductivities reveal significant enhancement, up to a factor of 3, depending upon the preirradiation composition. Films with higher initial hydrogen content provide the greatest increase, which is complemented by an increased stiffening and densification from the irradiation process. This enhancement in vibrational transport is unique when contrasted to crystalline materials, for which ion implantation is known to produce structural degradation and significantly reduced thermal conductivities.

Full Characterization of the Mechanical Properties of 11-50 nm Ultrathin Films: Influence of Network Connectivity on the Poisson's Ratio.

Precise characterization of the mechanical properties of ultrathin films is of paramount importance for both a fundamental understanding of nanoscale materials and for continued scaling and improvement of nanotechnology. In this work, we use coherent extreme ultraviolet beams to characterize the full elastic tensor of isotropic ultrathin films down to 11 nm in thickness. We simultaneously extract the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio of low-k a-SiC:H films with varying degrees of hardness and average network connectivity in a single measurement. Contrary to past assumptions, we find that the Poisson's ratio of such films is not constant but rather can significantly increase from 0.25 to >0.4 for a network connectivity below a critical value of ∼2.5. Physically, the strong hydrogenation required to decrease the dielectric constant k results in bond breaking, lowering the network connectivity, and Young's modulus of the material but also decreases the compressibility of the film. This new understanding of ultrathin films demonstrates that coherent EUV beams present a new nanometrology capability that can probe a wide range of novel complex materials not accessible using traditional approaches.

The effect of edge compliance on the contact between a spherical indenter and a high-aspect-ratio rectangular fin.

In the last two decades, significant progress has been made on developing new nanoscale mechanical property measurement techniques including instrumented indentation and atomic force microscopy based techniques. The changes in the tip-sample contact mechanics during measurements uniquely modify the displacement and force sensed by a measurement sensor and much effort is dedicated to correctly retrieve the sample mechanical properties from the measured signal. It turns out that in many cases, for the sake of simplicity, a simple contact mechanics model is adopted by overlooking the complexity of the actual contact geometry. In this work, a newly developed matrix formulation is used to solve the stress and strain equations for samples with edge geometries. Such sample geometries are often encountered in today's nanoscale integrated electronics in the form of high-aspect-ratio fins with widths in the range of tens of nanometers. In the matrix formulation, the fin geometries can be easily modeled as adjacent overlapped half-spaces and the contact problem can be solved by a numerical implementation of the conjugate gradient method. This method is very versatile in terms of contact geometry and contact interaction, either non-adhesive or adhesive. The discussion will incorporate a few model examples that are relevant for the nanoscale mechanics investigated by intermittent contact resonance AFM (ICR-AFM) on low-k dielectric fins of high-aspect-ratio. In such ICR-AFM measurements, distinct dependence of the contact stiffness was observed as a function of the applied force and distance from the edges of the fins. These dependences were correctly predicted by the model and used to retrieve the mechanical changes undergone by fins during fabrication and processing.

Nanoscale tomographic reconstruction of the subsurface mechanical properties of low-k high-aspect ratio patterns.

In this work, intermittent contact resonance atomic force microscopy (ICR-AFM) was performed on high-aspect ratio a-SiOC:H patterned fins (100 nm in height and width from 20 to 90 nm) to map the depth and width dependencies of the material stiffness. The spatial resolution and depth sensitivity of the measurements were assessed from tomographic cross-sections over various regions of interest within the 3D space of the measurements. Furthermore, the depth-dependence of the measured contact stiffness over the scanned area was used to determine the sub-surface variation of the elastic modulus at each point in the scan. This was achieved by iteratively adjusting the local elastic profile until the depth dependence of the resulted contact stiffness matched the depth dependence of the contact stiffness measured by ICR-AFM at that location. The results of this analysis were assembled into nanoscale sub-surface tomographic images of the elastic modulus of the investigated SiOC:H patterns. A new 3D structure-property representation emerged from these tomographic images with direct evidence for the alterations sustained by the structures during processing.

Nanoscale Buckling of Ultrathin Low-k Dielectric Lines during Hard-Mask Patterning.

Commonly known in macroscale mechanics, buckling phenomena are now also encountered in the nanoscale world as revealed in today's cutting-edge fabrication of microelectronics. The description of nanoscale buckling requires precise dimensional and elastic moduli measurements, as well as a thorough understanding of the relationships between stresses in the system and the ensuing morphologies. Here, we analyze quantitatively the buckling mechanics of organosilicate fins that are capped with hard masks in the process of lithographic formation of deep interconnects. We propose an analytical model that quantitatively describes the morphologies of the buckled fins generated by residual stresses in the hard mask. Using measurements of mechanical properties and geometric characteristics, we have verified the predictions of the analytical model for structures with various degrees of buckling, thus putting forth a framework for guiding the design of future nanoscale interconnect architectures.

Toughening thin-film structures with ceramic-like amorphous silicon carbide films.

A significant improvement of adhesion in thin-film structures is demonstrated using embedded ceramic-like amorphous silicon carbide films (a-SiC:H films). a-SiC:H films exhibit plasticity at the nanoscale and outstanding chemical and thermal stability unlike most materials. The multi-functionality and the ease of processing of the films have potential to offer a new toughening strategy for reliability of nanoscale device structures.

Spectroscopic method for measuring refractive index.

A method for routine, but precise measurements of refractive index is described. The method is fast and accurate. It is based on the analysis of interference fringes, and uses positions of the fringe maxima and/or minima and a precise measurement of sample thickness to extract refractive index. An extremely dense dataset of refractive index values over the entire spectral range of interest can be routinely obtained.

Nanoscale mapping of contact stiffness and damping by contact resonance atomic force microscopy.

In this work, a new procedure is demonstrated to retrieve the conservative and dissipative contributions to contact resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM) measurements from the contact resonance frequency and resonance amplitude. By simultaneously tracking the CR-AFM frequency and amplitude during contact AFM scanning, the contact stiffness and damping were mapped with nanoscale resolution on copper (Cu) interconnects and low-k dielectric materials. A detailed surface mechanical characterization of the two materials and their interfaces was performed in terms of elastic moduli and contact damping coefficients by considering the system dynamics and included contact mechanics. Using Cu as a reference material, the CR-AFM measurements on the patterned structures showed a significant increase in the elastic modulus of the low-k dielectric material compared with that of a blanket pristine film. Such an increase in the elastic modulus suggests an enhancement in the densification of low-k dielectric films during patterning. In addition, the subsurface response of the materials was investigated in load-dependent CR-AFM point measurements and in this way a depth dimension was added to the common CR-AFM surface characterization. With the new proposed measurement procedure and analysis, the present investigation provides new insights into characterization of surface and subsurface mechanical responses of nanoscale structures and the integrity of their interfaces.

Resolving the Subsurface Structure and Elastic Modulus of Layered Films via Contact Resonance Atomic Force Microscopy.

Since its discovery, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has become widely used for surface characterization, evolving from a tool for probing surface topography to a versatile method for characterizing mechanical, electrical, chemical, magnetic, and electro-optical properties of surfaces at the nanoscale. Developments of several AFM-based techniques have enabled even subsurface imaging, which is routinely being carried out at the qualitative level of feature detection for localized subsurface inhomogeneities. We surmise, however, that a quantitative three-dimensional (3D) subsurface characterization can emerge from the AFM mechanical response of flat buried interfaces, and present here a methodology for determining the depth of a film and its mechanical properties. Using load-dependent contact resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM) and accurate modeling of the contact between the AFM tip and a layered sample, we determine the relationship between the measured resonance frequency of the AFM probe and the contact stiffness. Our subsequent statistical analysis reveals an intrinsic and sample-specific interdependence between the depth and modulus sensitivities of CR-AFM. This interdependence prevents the simultaneous accurate determination of both depth and modulus from measurements on a single-layered sample. If the elastic moduli of the sample components are predetermined from separate investigations of bulk samples (or otherwise known), then this methodology accurately yields the location of the interface between the layers of the sample; as such, it can serve as a nondestructive and robust technique for probing layer thickness, subsurface features, and elastic properties of materials used in semiconductor electronics, additive manufacturing, or biomaterials.

Interfacial Defect Vibrations Enhance Thermal Transport in Amorphous Multilayers with Ultrahigh Thermal Boundary Conductance.

The role of interfacial nonidealities and disorder on thermal transport across interfaces is traditionally assumed to add resistance to heat transfer, decreasing the thermal boundary conductance (TBC). However, recent computational studies have suggested that interfacial defects can enhance this thermal boundary conductance through the emergence of unique vibrational modes intrinsic to the material interface and defect atoms, a finding that contradicts traditional theory and conventional understanding. By manipulating the local heat flux of atomic vibrations that comprise these interfacial modes, in principle, the TBC can be increased. In this work, experimental evidence is provided that interfacial defects can enhance the TBC across interfaces through the emergence of unique high-frequency vibrational modes that arise from atomic mass defects at the interface with relatively small masses. Ultrahigh TBC is demonstrated at amorphous SiOC:H/SiC:H interfaces, approaching 1 GW m-2 K-1 and are further increased through the introduction of nitrogen defects. The fact that disordered interfaces can exhibit such high conductances, which can be further increased with additional defects, offers a unique direction to manipulate heat transfer across materials with high densities of interfaces by controlling and enhancing interfacial thermal transport.

Relationships between chemical structure, mechanical properties and materials processing in nanopatterned organosilicate fins.

The exploitation of nanoscale size effects to create new nanostructured materials necessitates the development of an understanding of relationships between molecular structure, physical properties and material processing at the nanoscale. Numerous metrologies capable of thermal, mechanical, and electrical characterization at the nanoscale have been demonstrated over the past two decades. However, the ability to perform nanoscale molecular/chemical structure characterization has only been recently demonstrated with the advent of atomic-force-microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) and related techniques. Therefore, we have combined measurements of chemical structures with AFM-IR and of mechanical properties with contact resonance AFM (CR-AFM) to investigate the fabrication of 20-500 nm wide fin structures in a nanoporous organosilicate material. We show that by combining these two techniques, one can clearly observe variations of chemical structure and mechanical properties that correlate with the fabrication process and the feature size of the organosilicate fins. Specifically, we have observed an inverse correlation between the concentration of terminal organic groups and the stiffness of nanopatterned organosilicate fins. The selective removal of the organic component during etching results in a stiffness increase and reinsertion via chemical silylation results in a stiffness decrease. Examination of this effect as a function of fin width indicates that the loss of terminal organic groups and stiffness increase occur primarily at the exposed surfaces of the fins over a length scale of 10-20 nm. While the observed structure-property relationships are specific to organosilicates, we believe the combined demonstration of AFM-IR with CR-AFM should pave the way for a similar nanoscale characterization of other materials where the understanding of such relationships is essential.

Tunable plasticity in amorphous silicon carbide films.

Plasticity plays a crucial role in the mechanical behavior of engineering materials. For instance, energy dissipation during plastic deformation is vital to the sufficient fracture resistance of engineering materials. Thus, the lack of plasticity in brittle hybrid organic-inorganic glasses (hybrid glasses) often results in a low fracture resistance and has been a significant challenge for their integration and applications. Here, we demonstrate that hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide films, a class of hybrid glasses, can exhibit a plasticity that is even tunable by controlling their molecular structure and thereby leads to an increased and adjustable fracture resistance in the films. We decouple the plasticity contribution from the fracture resistance of the films by estimating the "work-of-fracture" using a mean-field approach, which provides some insight into a potential connection between the onset of plasticity in the films and the well-known rigidity percolation threshold.