Monte Carlo simulation of nanoscale material focused ion beam gas-assisted etching: Ga and Ne etching of SiO in the presence of a XeF precursor gas.

Elucidating energetic particle-precursor gas-solid interactions is critical to many atomic and nanoscale synthesis approaches. Focused ion beam sputtering and gas-assisted etching are among the more commonly used direct-write nanomachining techniques that have been developed. Here, we demonstrate a method to simulate gas-assisted focused ion beam (FIB) induced etching for editing/machining materials at the nanoscale.

Simulating advanced focused ion beam nanomachining: a quantitative comparison of simulation and experimental results.

A simulation study of focused ion beam (FIB) sputtering in SiO is presented. The basis of this study is an enhanced version of the EnvizION Monte Carlo simulation program for FIB processing, which previously was restricted to targets composed of a single atom. A Monte Carlo method is presented for the simulation of FIB sputtering in SiO in three-dimensions, with ion implantation, to elucidate the complex dynamics of nanoscale milling of compound targets.