Activity Report 2010 - CNRS

CRG:
The French Cooperative Research Group
(CRG) at ESRF operates equipments for
the structural and chemicals analysis of
nanostructures by hard X-rays diffraction
and diffusion.
CMTC:
Grenoble INP’s ‘Consortium de Moyens
Technologiques Communs’ (CMTC) offers
laboratory equipments for X-ray
characterization and electron microscopy
analysis of nanomaterials.
The nanocharacterization facility is open
to a large part of the Foundation
members while there are no uniform
access rules because some top level
equipments can only be operated by
trained experts or because the selection
by Program Committees is required
(ESRF).
In 2008, the Foundation contributed to
the acquisition of a new dual beam
Focused Ion Beam (FIB) that is located at
the PFNC. This NVision ZEISS FIB was
installed during summer 2009. Since
then, numerous “expert” users have been
trained to use this equipment. Now,
more than 10 users from the 3 partner’s
laboratories (CMTC, PTA and PFNC) are
working every day to perform advanced
experiments:
Nanomanipulation of nanoobjects
as tripod ZnO, nanowires or tores
using the 4 nanomanipulators
Fig. 3: MEB-FIB nanomanipulators
Electrical testing on nanodevices
(carbon nanotubes, memories,
transistors)
Thin lamella preparation for TEM
observations: classical lift out with
optimised end milling at low voltage to
reduced implantation /amorphisation;
back end preparation to avoid ion beam
damage on critical structures
Ion milling for nano-object
making (nanopillar for 3D X-ray
tomography, hole in thin layers for
Synchrotron experiments, others…)
3D reconstruction using the “slice
and view” method. Experiment of series
of images is done overnight to perform
3D reconstruction with nm resolution.
Tests were done on a large range of
materials: SC, porous materials,
Biological sample (rat heart tissues),
devices for microelectronic, fuel cell …
Fig. 4: TEM images of YBaCuO/LaZrO thin bilayer
on NiW substrate obtained from a single
12 µm TEM slice cut using the FIB (Coll.
CMTC/Grenoble INP)
Please read the corresponding Highlight
at the end of this report for further
information
These experiments are done for various
kinds of projects: ANR, Nanosciences
Foundation, Carnot Institutes, PhD
Thesis, Nano2012 for nanoscience and
nanodevices applications.
Additional experiments were also
conducted by Earth Science Institute
(‘Institut des Sciences de la Terre’ or
‘ISTerre’) and ‘Grenoble Institute of
Neuroscience’ or ‘GIN’ for biological
applications.
In 2010, the Foundation has decided to
partially support (~50%) the purchase of
a new X-ray optics for the D2AM French
CRG beamline at ESRF. This operation,
which was also supported by Léti, will
enable to extend the X ray photon energy
up to 40 keV, and cover an energy range
that is complementary to the available
one at synchrotron Soleil in Saint-Aubin.
This high energy range is particularly well
suited to the characterization of buried
interfaces and nanostructures.
A significant improvement of the beam
quality is also expected, which will reduce
by a factor of 10 to 100 the acquisition
time.
SCIENTIFIC REPORT
39