Sezen M., Bakan F.
Sabanci University, TR
Keywords: AFM, focused ion beams, functionalized polymer surfaces, gas assisted etching, surface modification
Although soft matter, such as polymers, are very much prone to react on electron/ion beam irradiation, it is well possible to turn degradation dependent physical/chemical changes from negative to positive when materials are exposed to beams in a controlled manner. This sort of processes allow tuning of surface properties in intended directions and thus provides the use of the ultimate materials and their systems towards desired and pre-defined targets out at the micro/nano-scale for creating functional surfaces. The recent work mainly focuses on using gas injections systems (GIS) in the FIB-SEM instrument to combine the gallium beam irradiation effects with GAE to optimize, design and develop new polymer surface properties and to create functional polymer surfaces, such that those materials can serve as novel materials for many different fields of science and technology. For GAE experiments in this work, XeF2 and I2 gases was used in combination to gallium ion etching of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) surfaces with different beam currents and accordingly different gas exposure times resulting at the same ion dose. The alterations in the surface morphologies due to gas assisted etching based nanostructuring with various processing parameters were tracked using HR-SEM imaging and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)investigations.The authors would like to thank TUBITAK 114M040 Project and COST CM1301 CELINA Action for support.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 1, Advanced Materials: TechConnect Briefs 2015
Published: June 14, 2015
Pages: 25 - 27
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Materials Characterization & Imaging
ISBN: 978-1-4987-4727-1