Shaping Organic Microcrystals Using Focused Ion Beam Milling
Wangxiang Li, Jeremiah van Baren, Adam J. Berges, Elena Bekyarova, Chun Hung Lui, Christopher J. Bardeen
Abstract
The technique of focused ion beam (FIB) milling is used to cut two-dimensional shapes into single crystals composed of the organic semiconductor molecule perylene. The use of an ultrathin Au coating and its removal using a KI/I2 etchant solution allow the crystal to be imaged in the FIB apparatus while protecting it from electron beam damage. Using this approach, features with a spatial resolution on the order of 130 nm can be created while retaining 90% of the original photoluminescence intensity in the surrounding crystal regions. These proof-of-principle experiments demonstrate that FIB milling could provide a general way to control the nanoscale morphology of organic molecular crystals.