Manipulation of Liquid Metal Inside an SEM by Taking Advantage of Electromigration

Kleist-Retzow, Fabian T. von; Haenssler, Olaf C.; Fatikow, Sergej

doi:10.1109/jmems.2018.2878320

Cited by 11 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The liquid metal droplets are produced via an electromigration process [26] during which drops of an alloy with a mass ratio of 68.5% Ga, 21.5% In, and 10% Sn (equivalent to Galinstan©) are grown at the apex of an electrochemically etched and FIB-customized tungsten tip (end effector), which is electrically connected to a source measurement unit (SMU, Keysight B2901A) and mechanically mounted to the nanomanipulation setup. For growth of the liquid metal droplet, an electrostatic potential between the substrate and the tip is applied by the SMU.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Line Tension and Drop Size Dependence of Contact Angle at the Nanoscale

2022

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Despite considerable research efforts, the influence of contact line tension during wetting at the nanoscale and its experimental determination remain challenging tasks. So far, molecular dynamics simulations and atomic force microscope measurements have contributed to the understanding of these phenomena. However, a direct measurement of the size dependence of the contact angle and the magnitude of the apparent line tension has not been realized so far. Here, we show that the contact angle is indeed dependent on the drop size for small drop diameters and determine the magnitude of the apparent line tension via liquid-metal based measurements of advancing and receding contact angle inside a scanning electron microscope. For this purpose, a robotic setup inside an electron microscope chamber and oxide-free Galinstan droplets—produced via an electromigration-based and focused ion beam irradiation-assisted process—are employed. Using the first-order correction of Young’s equation, we find an apparent line tension value of 4.02 × 10−7 J/m for Galinstan© on stainless steel.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Line Tension and Drop Size Dependence of Contact Angle at the Nanoscale

2022

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“…This allows the liquid metal to be forced to adhere to a manipulator. Forces utilized for this are van-der-Waals (Guo et al, 2020), capillary (Cumby et al, 2012) and electrostatic forces (Kleist-Retzow von et al, 2019b). However, the use of these techniques makes targeted wetting or structuring of the liquid metal virtually impossible.…”

Section: Fabrication Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…contact angle measurements (see Figures 9A,D a) for which a liquid metal sphere that is as unaffected as possible is required. This implementation resulted in successful applications such as probes for contact angle measurements (Kleist-Retzow et al, 2020;Klauser et al, 2022), probes for gripping processes with adjustable adhesion (Kleist-Retzow von et al, 2019b) or probes for printing liquid metal volumes (see Figure 9C) (Kleist-Retzow von et al, 2019b).…”

Section: Probe Design and Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas the use of Hg is decreasing more and more because of its toxicity. The diameter of liquid metal droplets can be tailored by top-down processes such as using a blender (Tevis et al, 2014) and a simple syringe (Natalia Sobczak et al, 2010), or via bottom-up processes such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) (Kleist-Retzow and von, 2021) or by means of controlled electromigration (Kleist-Retzow von et al, 2019b). As the surface tension of the droplets determines its shape, when brought into contact with a substrate, its shape is entirely defined by the surface energies of the interface components (Klauser et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advances in assembled micro- and nanoscale mechanical contact probes

et al. 2022

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The micro- and nanoscale characterization and mapping of surface properties and surface behaviour is critical to both physical and biological science. Mechanical contact probes are a critical tool for investigating surface and interface science, and have seen greater development and a diversification in recent years. In particular, mechanical contact probes that have been fabricated from the bottom-up by the assembly of synthesized nano- or microscale materials can provide enhanced functionality and sensitivity over traditional microcantilevers. This work provides an overview of recent developments in the field of assembled micro- and nanoscale mechanical contact probes, with a specific focus on three probe types: colloidal particle probes with high aspect ratio and a high lateral sensitivity, one-dimensional probes comprising of nanotube and/or nanowire deflection elements, and liquid metal-based probes. For each probe type, the state-of-the-art is reviewed, and their assembly, design, functionality and capabilities are discussed. An outlook on the future direction of probe development and potential applications is also given.

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“…demonstrated formation and manipulation of >20 μm diameter Galinstan spheres inside a scanning electron microscope with a current density of 50 kAcm −2 in less than 10 min. [ 52 ] Michaud and Lacour [ 45 ] applied current densities from 5 − 100 Acm −2 to a liquid gallium‐solid gold interconnect and measured MTTFs from 10 2 to 10 −2 s, which they attributed to electromigration and the formation of Ga‐Au compounds. Similarly, Park et al.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Lifetime of Liquid Metal Wires for Stretchable Devices

Dorsey¹,

Lazarus

2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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As stretchable devices become well established for applications in soft robotics and wearable devices, the compliant conductors that make these applications possible must also be reliable and survive for the entire device lifetime. Liquid metals such as Galinstan are a potential solution as non‐toxic, stretchable, and low‐resistance conductors. Rigorous investigations of liquid metal lifetimes, however, are limited. This work presents the median lifetime of liquid metal‐filled silicone tubes under current density on the order of 1 kAcm−2, which is necessary for applications such as electromagnetic actuators. In these conductors, the median lifetime increases by a factor of over 4700 as current decreases from 2 to 1 kAcm−2. By cooling the sample, median failure time increases from 112 s to 9.4 h, which suggests straightforward solutions to maximize liquid metal wire lifetime by increasing thermal conductivity or by duty cycling the applied current.

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Manipulation of Liquid Metal Inside an SEM by Taking Advantage of Electromigration

Cited by 11 publications

References 25 publications

Line Tension and Drop Size Dependence of Contact Angle at the Nanoscale

Line Tension and Drop Size Dependence of Contact Angle at the Nanoscale

Advances in assembled micro- and nanoscale mechanical contact probes

Lifetime of Liquid Metal Wires for Stretchable Devices

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