Mechanical properties of 3D silicon nanosprings fabricated by FIB

This paper presented 3D silicon nanosprings fabricated by focused-ion-beam (FIB) milling on nanometer-thick single crystal silicon cantilevers, which brought a distribution of nanoscale localized stress into the silicon films and caused their deformation. By intentionally controlling FIB milling on nanometer-thick silicon films, a series of 3D nanosprings with diameters ranging from 540 nm to 840 nm and pitch distances ranging from 1780 nm to 2160 nm were achieved. With AFM, the mechanical properties of the fabricated silicon nanospring structures were investigated. The measured transverse buckling stiffness of the nanospring was about 40.74 N/m before anneal and 16.45 N/m after anneal, respectively, while that of silicon nanospring structures was stable because there was no obvious change in their dimensions before and after anneal with ESEM.EI04351-354