In-situ Realtime Monitoring of Nanoscale Gold Electroplating Using MEMS Liquid Cell Operating in TEM

Minoru Egawa (1) , Tadashi Ishida (2) , Laurent Jalabert (3, 4) , Hiroyuki Fujita (1)

1 IIS - Institute of Industrial Science
2 TITECH - Tokyo Institute of Technology [Tokyo]
3 LAAS-TEAM - Service Techniques et Équipements Appliqués à la Microélectronique
4 LIMMS - Laboratory for Integrated Micro Mechatronics Systems

The dynamics of nanoscale electroplating between gold electrodes was investigated using a micro fabricated liquid cell mounted in a scanning transmission electron microscope. The electroplating was recorded in-situ for 10 minutes with a spatial resolution higher than 6 nm. At the beginning of the electroplating, gold spike-like structures of about 50 nanometers in size grew from an electrode, connected gold nanoclusters around them, and form three dimensional nanoscale structures. We visualized the elementary process of the gold electroplating, and believe that the results lead to the deeper understanding of electroplating at the nano scale.

Mots clés: gold; electroplating; in-situ TEM; liquid-cell

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique; Matériaux

Minoru Egawa, Tadashi Ishida, Laurent Jalabert, Hiroyuki Fujita. In-situ Realtime Monitoring of Nanoscale Gold Electroplating Using MEMS Liquid Cell Operating in TEM. Applied Physics Letters, 2016, 108 (2), pp.023104. ⟨10.1063/1.4939771⟩. ⟨hal-01254252⟩