Extending ion-track lithography to the low-energy ion regime

Abstract

Ion tracking and ion-track lithography have been performed almost exclusively using ions with energies near or above the maximum in electronic stopping, which occurs at ~1 MeV/amu. In this paper, ion-track lithography using ions with energies well below this maximum is discussed. The results of etching ion tracks created in polycarbonate films by ions with energies just above the anticipated threshold for creating etchable latent tracks with cylindrical geometry have been examined. Low-energy neon and argon ions with 18-60 keV/amu and fluences of ~10 8 /cm 2 were used to examine the limits for producing useful, etchable tracks in polycarbonate films. By concentrating on the early stages of etching (i.e., ~20 nm < SEM hole diameter < ~100 nm), the energy deposition

Thermostable Nanoporous Polycyanurates

“…Therefore, they constitute promising materials for producing membranes, adsorbents, and filters working under severe conditions (high temperatures, corrosive media, etc.). Porous materials based on thermostable polymers are generally prepared either through the irradiation of their thin films by ions of heavy metals, followed by a track-etching procedure [5][6][7][8], or by in situ synthesis of them in the presence of different porogens (for example, gases, solvents, and thermally or photochemically labile thermoplastic polymers) with further removal of the latter [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Nevertheless, forming porous PCN thermosetting films still remains a key challenge, as to the best of our knowledge, only a few reports on the design and synthesis of porous PCNs have been published so far [15][16][17].…”