PhD Project by Mathias Vadmand Adelmark

Project Title: Fabrication and Characterization of Adaptive Phase Plates for Electron Optics
Group: Polymer Microsystems
Supervisor: Rafael Taboryski
Co-supervisors: Ada-loana Bunea, Marco Beleggia, Andrei Lavrinko 

Projet description
The project concerns the fabrication of adaptive phase plates for electron optics and is part of the “Adaptive optics for electron beams” project (ADELE) funded by DFF. The objective of ADELE is the implementation of adaptive optics ideas for electron beams in the form of voltage-controlled phase plates. This PhD project has focus on exploring the options and establishing solid protocols for fabricating adaptive phase plates, which is an important aspect in the advancement of electron imaging and spectroscopy techniques for the characterization of nanostructured materials. Additionally, an improved phase control of the electron beam could improve the transcription of nanopatterns using e-beam lithography.

DTU Nanolab’s state-of-the-art cleanroom facilities will be used for fabrication, with processes such as e-beam lithography, etching and metal deposition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) will be used for quality control of the phase plate features, while the conductivity will be measured by a four-point probe setup. Finally, the phase plate devices will be installed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and evaluated by comparison to simulations results, which will result in tweaking of the designs to optimise their performance.