As electronics shrink, researchers are turning to nanoscale materials like ultra-thin nanosheets for next-generation devices. Studying these tiny structures without damaging them is challenging, but scientists used a 12-nanometer-wide X-ray beam to examine them safely. This revealed two competing mechanisms behind how these nanosheets deform, offering insights crucial for advancing microelectronics.
Nanosheets are used in tiny next-generation electronic components called Gate-All-Around Field Effect Transistors (GAAFETs). These components form the basis of computer microprocessors at the heart of smartphones and computers. In this study, a team of researchers from IBM collaborated with scientists from the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory, to map the deformations within nanosheets. The researchers investigated these structures using the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe (HXN) beamline at the NSLS-II light source.
By exploiting the brilliant source of X-rays and the resolving power provided by a nanofocusing optics setup called a multilayer Laue lens, the researchers were able to identify two competing mechanisms at different length scales that contribute to the deformation. The first, which is long-range and previously known, is due to the mismatch of lattice constant between the different elements and a relaxation effect near edges. The second, a much shorter-range effect, is associated with the layering itself and is dominant within a length scale of the nanosheet thickness from the edge. These new insights could help researchers predict essential performance parameters of future devices, such as the carrier mobility.
For more information: Nature Communications
Image: Artist’s impression of how X-rays make it possible to study the distortions of the layers in the microelectronics material. The atoms at the edges of the layers are either squished tighter or pulled apart, creating a bend along the different layers.
