Reliable Assembling of Colloidal Nanoparticles in Two and Three Dimensions by Dual-AFM-based Handling inside a Scanning Electron Microscope
Final Report Abstract
The project “Reliable Assembling of Colloidal Nanoparticles in Two and Three Dimensions by Dual-AFM-based Handling inside a Scanning Electron Microscope” (RACoNa) addressed the challenge of picking and placing particles with spatial dimensions below 1 µm. Overall, pick-and-place handling at the submicrometer scale is a delicate process due to the dominant adhesive forces and the limited possibilities in terms of control. While robotic stateof-the-art approaches already allowed to push and align particles on a planar substrate, the transfer of particles from one substrate to another substrate or the reliable assembly of particles into well-defined three-dimensional arrangements remained as major challenges. To overcome the restrictions of the state-of-the-art approaches, the RACoNa project focused on the development of a dedicated dual-probe setup that is integrated within the vacuum chamber of a scanning electron microscope. This setup allows to implement a handling strategy that functions via the cooperative operation of two probes with an optimized geometry. In this way, the strong adhesive forces at the small scale can be utilized purposefully which in turn promises to allow for more reliable pick-and-place handling procedures. The experimental investigation and evaluation of this dual-probe handling strategy was the core component of the RACoNa project. Here, it could be demonstrated that the handling strategy enables, for the first time, to assemble two-dimensional and three-dimensional arrangements consisting of individually stacked submicrometer particles (down to 200 nm in diameter) with sub-100 nm accuracy. Following the proposed approach, even fully automated pick-and-place cycles are realized with hitherto unrivaled precision (50 nm placing accuracy). The overall approach has been applied to prototypic fabrication of well-defined structures with nanoscale accuracy. Here, selected structures were specifically designed and fabricated in order to probe the near-field distribution of plasmonically excited nanoslits. This application example demonstrates the unique advantages of the developed robotic assembly approach as well as its potential for addressing challenging experimental tasks in research. The approach with the herein used instrumentation was limited to handle particles with diameters above 200 nm. Main restrictions are likely due to a combination of different aspects such as the limited resolution of probes and microscopes as well as parasitic effects induced by the electron beam itself. In conclusion, the proposed dual-probe method for handling individual colloidal particles could be demonstrated successfully. Particularly, the reliable assembly of three-dimensional structures consisting of individually stacked colloidal particles as well as the demonstrated automation compatibility of the handling sequence represent important advancements.
Publications
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(2017) Chemical Identification of Individual Fine Dust Particles with Resonant Plasmonic Enhancement of Nanoslits in the Infrared. ACS Photonics 4 (3) 560–566
Vogt, Jochen; Zimmermann, Sören; Huck, Christian; Tzschoppe, Michael; Neubrech, Frank; Fatikow, Sergej; Pucci, Annemarie
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“Robotic dual probe setup for reliable pick and place processing on the nanoscale using haptic devices”, Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 892 - 897, September 14-18, Chicago, USA, 2014
T. Tiemerding, S. Zimmermann, and S. Fatikow
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“Automated Micro- and Nanohandling inside the Scanning Electron Microscope”, Book Chapter in “Micro- and Nanomanipulation Tools”, Editors: Y. Sun and X. Liu, Wiley-VCH, ISBN: 978-3-527-33784-2, pp. 504-536, 2015
M. Bartenwerfer, S. Zimmermann, T. Tiemerding, M. Mikczinski, and S. Fatikow
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“Automated Robotic Manipulation of Individual Colloidal Particles Using Vision-Based Control“, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol.20, no.5, pp.2031-2038, Oct. 2015
S. Zimmermann, T. Tiemerding, and S. Fatikow
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“Automated Robotic Manipulation of individual sub-micro Particles using a Dual Probe Setup inside the Scanning Electron Microscope“, Proceedings of 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Washington State Convention Center Seattle, Washington, USA, May 26-30, pp. 950 - 955, 2015
S. Zimmermann, T. Tiemerding, O. C. Haenssler, and S. Fatikow
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"Cubical photonic structures by means of ion beam assisted robotic assembly", Proceedings of the International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (NEMS), pp. 270-274, 2016
W. Klauser, S. Zimmermann, M. Bartenwerfer, and S. Fatikow
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"Dedicated Robotic Handling and Processing at the Submicrometer Scale: Feasibility Studies", Dissertation, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg. München : Verlag Dr. Hut (2017). 198 S.
S. Zimmermann
