Submicron-sized actuators based on enhanced shape memory composite material fabricated by FIB-CVD

Abstract

An enhanced scheme for a functional bilayered composite material with shape memory effect has been successfully applied on the microscale to fabricate a thermally controlled microactuator. Fabrication of cantilever-type microactuators from melt spun ribbon of TiNiCu shape memory alloy included electro-chemical polishing followed by focused ion beam milling and ion-assisted chemical vapor deposition of Pt elastic layer. The smallest working microactuator had a volume of 0.9 µm3. The structure and thermal stability of the Pt layer have been investigated. The fabricated actuator has been proposed for use as micromechanical nanotweezers for manipulation of submicron- and nano-sized objects. Manipulation of a carbon nanotube bunch has been demonstrated.

Metal-Induced Crystallization of Focused Ion Beam-Induced Deposition for Functional Patterned Ultrathin Nanocarbon

“…Resolution below 100 nm is easily achieved by the FIBID technique. As a result, it allows, for example, the deposition of very fi ne lines of W with sub-20 nm resolution, which exhibit superconductor properties at low temperatures [ 27 ], or fabrication of metal heaters in bimorph cantilevers [ 28 ] proposed to be used as nanotweezers. Devices as FET transistors, fabricated in combination with FEBID [ 29 ], nanotemplates [ 28 ], or deposition of catalytic material for nanowire growth [ 30 ], are other applications for FIBID, enabling an increasing number of novel nanoarchitectures.…”

New system for manipulation of nanoobjects based on composite Ti2NiCu/Pt nanotweezers with shape memory effect

“…Magnetic shape memory materials are known, but their use is hampered by the need to use strong magnetic fields (~ 8-10 T), which may induce interference on SEM systems [7][8][9]. Previous design of SME nanotweezers, presented in [10,11], has proved itself as a useful device for performing 3D manipulation. In particular, the nanotweezers were applied for submicron and nanosized sample preparation for studying electrical properties of quasi-one dimensional conductors with a charge density waves -TaS3 whiskers.…”

Shape memory alloy nanostructures with coupled dynamic thermo-mechanical effects

“…In many of the above applications, SMAs are actuated dynamically at different loading rates under various boundary conditions. Factors like geometry [14], boundary conditions [9,5,15], loading rates [16], have substantial influence on the microstructure evolution and their thermo-mechanical behaviors. However, these factors have not been studied in a fully coupled thermo-mechanical framework for SMAs.…”