On Application of Plasmas in Nanotechnologies

In this chapter we give a review of the application of non-equilibrium plasmas in the field of nanotechnologies, and nanotechnology-related science. The field of applications of plasma in general in nanotechnologies is extensive, and the field of non-equilibrium plasmas in the same context is almost as large with many possibilities covering both top-down and bottom-up fabrication approaches. Thus a single review cannot give it justice. We opted here, as may be expected, to give a review of possibilities in general, ranging from the growth and functionalization of aligned nanotubes, carbon walls and sheaths of graphene, through to the growth of gas-phase nanocrystals and dust particles; surface deposition of different structures, functionalization of the surface and conditions for developing means to prepare hyperhydrophobic surfaces; treatment of textiles, organic materials, living cells, to applications in nanoelectronics for the manufacture of future generations of integrated circuits to meet the Moore’s law driven semiconductor roadmap. In a text like this it is not possible to cover all issues and even less to cover all sources. We thus focus on several topics and mostly on the plasma physics problems related to improving the plasma technologies. They include charging as a source of errors in integrated circuit fabrication to the generation of non-equilibrium plasmas at atmospheric pressure for even more convenient application and for applications in biomedicine. The message we hope to convey to all readers is an understanding as to the explicit advantages that non-equilibrium plasmas have in a large number of plasma-assisted nanotechnologies and other modern technologies—an advantage that other emerging technologies will struggle to match at the levels of integration, cost and quality required of future fabrication.