The invention provides a method for providing an Au-containing layer onto a surface of a work piece, which method comprises: providing 510 a deposition fluid comprising Au(CO)Cl; depositing 520 the fluid on at least part of the surface of the work piece; and directing 530 a charged particle beam toward the surface of the work piece onto which at least part of the fluid is deposited to decompose Au(CO)Cl thereby forming the Au-containing layer on the surface of the work piece. By using Au(CO)Cl as a precursor for charged particle induced deposition, a gold Au layer may be deposited with a very high purity compared to methods known in the art.

Apparatus for nanofabrication on an unconventional substrate including a patterned pliable membrane mechanically coupled to a membrane support structure, a substrate support structure to receive a substrate for processing, and an actuator to adjust the distance between the pliable membrane and the substrate. Nanofabrication on conventional and unconventional substrates can be achieved by transferring a pre-formed patterned pliable membrane onto the substrate using a transfer probe or non-stick sheet, followed by irradiating the substrate through the patterned pliable membrane so as to transfer the pattern on the pliable membrane into or out of the substrate. The apparatus and methods allow fabrication of diamond photonic crystals, fiber-integrated photonic devices and Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds.

A chemical vapor deposition chamber including a vacuum chamber; a power source; a gas conduit coupling the vacuum chamber to a precursor gas source; a filament arrangement energized by the power source to thereby impart thermal energy to molecules of precursor gas flowing from the precursor gas source; a coupling mechanism; wherein the filament arrangement comprises a plurality of filaments and the coupling mechanism electrically coupling the power source only to a subset of the plurality of filaments at any given time, while remaining filaments are not energized.

In one embodiment, an apparatus to selectively deposit a carbon layer on substrate, comprising a plasma chamber to receive a flow of carbon-containing gas; a power source to generate a plasma containing the carbon-containing gas in the plasma chamber; an extraction plate to extract an ion beam from the plasma and direct the ion beam to the substrate, the ion beam comprising ions having trajectories forming a non-zero angle of incidence with respect to a perpendicular to a plane of the substrate, the extraction plate further configured to conduct a neutral species derived from the carbon-containing gas to the substrate; and a substrate stage facing the extraction plate and including a heater to heat the substrate to a first temperature, when the ion beam and carbon-containing species impinge on the substrate.

Methods, devices and systems for patterning of substrates using charged particle beams without photomasks and without a resist layer. Material can be deposited onto a substrate, as directed by a design layout database, localized to positions targeted by multiple, matched charged particle beam columns. Reducing the number of process steps, and eliminating lithography steps, in localized material addition has the dual benefit of reducing manufacturing cycle time and increasing yield by lowering the probability of defect introduction. Furthermore, highly localized, precision material deposition allows for controlled variation of deposition rate and enables creation of 3D structures. Local gas injectors and detectors, and local photon injectors and detectors, are local to corresponding ones of the columns, and can be used to facilitate rapid, accurate, targeted, highly configurable substrate processing, advantageously using large arrays of said beam columns.

A method for planning a beam path for material deposition is provided in which a structure pattern having features of varying size is analyzed to determine the size of each feature. A beam path throughout the structure pattern is determined and the beam current required for each point in the structure pattern is configured. Configuring the beam current required for each point involves determining the acceptable beam dose for that point. Relatively small features require a low beam current for high accuracy and relatively large features can be formed using a higher beam current allowing faster deposition. Each feature in the structure pattern is deposited at the highest beam current acceptable to allow accurate deposition of the feature.

A system for depositing material over a sample in a localized region of the sample, the system including: a vacuum chamber; a thermal mass disposed outside the vacuum chamber; a sample support configured to hold a sample within the vacuum chamber during a sample evaluation process; a charged particle beam column configured to direct a charged particle beam into the vacuum chamber toward the sample such that the charged particle beam collides with the sample in a deposition region; a gas injection system configured to deliver a process gas to the deposition region of the sample; and a thermal isolation shield spaced apart from and disposed between the gas injection system and the sample, wherein the thermal isolation shield has a high thermal conductivity and a low emissivity and is thermally coupled to the thermal mass to transfer heat radiated from the gas injection system to the thermal mass.

The process for producing an orthopedic implant having an integrated ceramic surface layer includes steps for positioning the orthopedic implant inside a vacuum chamber, emitting a relatively high energy beam into the at least two different vaporized metalloid or transition metal atoms in the vacuum chamber to cause a collision therein to form ceramic molecules, and driving the ceramic molecules with the ion beam into an outer surface of the orthopedic implant at a relatively high energy such that the ceramic molecules implant therein and form at least a part of the molecular structure of the outer surface of the orthopedic implant, thereby forming the integrated ceramic surface layer.

A film forming device includes: a film forming chamber; a holder configured to hold a substrate in the film forming chamber; an inlet pipe configured to introduce a gas of a raw material containing carbon into the film forming chamber; a cathode electrode that is filamentous; a first power source configured to heat the cathode electrode by energization; an anode electrode provided around the cathode electrode; a second power source configured to generate a discharge between the cathode electrode and the anode electrode; a third power source configured to generate a potential difference between the cathode electrode or the anode electrode and the substrate; an ionization area configured to ionize the gas to generate an ionized gas by the discharge; and an acceleration area in which the ionized gas is accelerated by the potential difference. A soft-magnetic cylinder is provided around the acceleration area.

The process for producing an orthopedic implant having an integrated silicon nitride surface layer includes steps for positioning the orthopedic implant inside a vacuum chamber, mixing nitrogen gas and vaporized silicon atoms in the vacuum chamber, emitting a relatively high energy beam into the mixture of nitrogen gas and vaporized silicon atoms in the vacuum chamber to cause a gas-phase reaction between the nitrogen gas and the vaporized silicon atoms to form reacted precipitate silicon nitride molecules, and driving the precipitate silicon nitride molecules with the same beam into an outer surface of the orthopedic implant at a relatively high energy such that the precipitate silicon nitride molecules implant therein and form at least a part of the molecular structure of the outer surface of the orthopedic implant, thereby forming the integrated silicon nitride surface layer.