Study of temperature rise during focused Ga ion beam irradiation using nanothermo-probe

Estimation of temperature rise during focused ion beam irradiation is of immense importance, since it affects various processes related to micro-machining and deposition. When ion beam impinges on a surface, it transfers its kinetic energy by way of electronic excitations and collisions, which eventually gets converted in the form of heat leading to rise in local temperature. This temperature rise affects and governs the properties of the machined region. The temperature rise can be calculated on the basis of energy deposition and heat transfer. However, there are very few reports on the measurement of such local temperature rise which lasts for very short time. We have designed and fabricated nanothermocouples of Pt-W to monitor local temperature rise (i) near a microheater and (ii) in the close proximity of an intense focused ion beam spot on a substrate. The junctions having size of 100 nm x 100 nm have been fabricated using focused ion beam chemical vapor deposition (FIB-CVD). The nanothermocouples have shown a fast response to the changes in temperature. These nanothermocouples can find useful applications in thermal characterization of nanomaterials and for understanding of temperature mediated phenomena in the samples treated under directed energy deposition processes, e.g. ion, laser and electron beam treatment. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.