Influence of gallium ion beam acceleration voltage on the bend angle of amorphous silicon cantilevers

This paper describes a plastic reshaping technique for Si thin membranes by using focused ion beam (FIB) processing. FIB is used to locally pattern and implant Ga ions into the membranes. The combination of Ga ion doping and alkali wet etching enables us to fabricate nanometer-thick Ga-ion-doped amorphous Si membranes, which can be bent upward at arbitrary angle by controlling the FIB beam irradiation condition. The bending mechanism is discussed in the light of Ga ions implanted depth from the membrane surface. By using this technique, a micrometer-sized chute structure with several different angles is produced.