Cluster ion beam process for nanofabrication

This paper reviews gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) technology, including the generation of cluster beams, fundamental characteristics of cluster ion to solid surface interactions, emerging industrial applications, and identification of some of the significant events which occurred as the technology has evolved into what it is today. More than 20 years have passed since the author (I.Y) first began to explore feasibility of processing by gas cluster ion beams at the Ion Beam Engineering Experimental Laboratory of Kyoto University. Processes employing ions of gaseous material clusters comprised of a few hundred to many thousand atoms are now being developed into a new field of ion beam technology. Cluster-surface collisions produce important non-linear effects which are being applied to shallow junction formation, to etching and smoothing of semiconductors, metals, and dielectrics, to assisted formation of thin films with nano-scale accuracy, and to other surface modification applications.