In this paper we demonstrate that under ultrahigh strain conditions p-type single crystal silicon nanowires possess an anomalous piezoresistance effect. The measurements were performed on vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) grown Si nanowires, monolithically integrated in a microelectro-mechanical loading module. The special setup enables the application of pure uniaxial tensile strain along the <111> growth direction of individual, 100 nm thick Si nanowires while simultaneously measuring the resistance of the nanowires. For low strain levels (nanowire elongation less than 0.8%), our measurements revealed the expected positive piezoresistance effect, whereas for ultrahigh strain levels a transition to anomalous negative piezoresistance was observed. For the maximum tensile strain of 3.5%, the resistance of the Si nanowires decreased by a factor of 10. Even at these high strain amplitudes, no fatigue failures are observed for several hundred loading cycles. The ability to fabricate single-crystal nanowires that are widely free of structural defects will it make possible to apply high strain without fracturing to other materials as well, therefore in any application where crystallinity and strain are important, the idea of making nanowires should be of a high value.

Ultrashort flashes of THz light with low photon energies of a few meV, but strong electric or magnetic field transients have recently been employed to prepare various fascinating nonequilibrium states in matter. Here we present a new class of sources based on superradiant enhancement of radiation from relativistic electron bunches in a compact electron accelerator that we believe will revolutionize experiments in this field. Our prototype source generates high-field THz pulses at unprecedented quasi-continuous-wave repetition rates up to the MHz regime. We demonstrate parameters that exceed state-of-the-art laser-based sources by more than 2 orders of magnitude. The peak fields and the repetition rates are highly scalable and once fully operational this type of sources will routinely provide 1 MV/cm electric fields and 0.3 T magnetic fields at repetition rates of few 100 kHz. We benchmark the unique properties by performing a resonant coherent THz control experiment with few 10 fs resolution.

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2D focused ion beam simulation is only capable of simulating the topography where the surface shape does not change along the third dimension, both in the final result and during processing. In this paper we show that a 3D topography forms under the beam even though the variation in the final result along the third direction is small. We present the code AMADEUS 3D (advanced modelling and design environment for sputter processes), which is capable of simulating the surface topography in 3D space including angle-dependent sputtering and redeposition. The surface is represented by a structured or unstructured grid, and the nodes are moved according to the calculated sputtering and redeposition fluxes. In addition, experiments have been performed on nanodot formation and box milling for a case where a 3D temporary topography forms. The excellent agreement validates the code and shows the completeness of the model.

The level set method, introduced by Osher and Sethian (1988 J. Comput. Phys. 79 12-49), has recently become popular in the simulation of etching, deposition and photolithography processes in semiconductor manufacturing, as it is a highly robust and accurate computational technique for tracking moving interfaces. In this paper, the level set approach is applied to focused ion beam fabrication, allowing for the first time the simulation of targets with sub-regions that change their connectivity during processing. It is implemented in the code AMADEUS-level set (advanced modelling and design environment for sputter processes), which is capable of simulating surface topography changes in two dimensions taking re-deposition fluxes into account. We present two examples of comparisons between simulation and experiment that demonstrate the predictive capability of the code.