Focused Deposition of Individual Ion-trapped Graphene Nanoplatelets in Ultra-high Vacuum

A charged nanoparticle that is confined and cooled in an ion trap can, in principle, be expelled from the trap and directed onto a substrate with high accuracy using an electrostatic lens. This technique may be applied to create new types of structures (by depositing a 2D material onto a reactive surface in high vacuum, for example) or to allow characterization of previously trapped particles using conventional microscopy techniques. In this talk, we present a method of depositing an ion-trapped graphene nanoplatelet onto a conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV), using an Einzel lens to focus the platelet’s trajectory. The substrate can be removed from the system for further study of the platelet. We demonstrate detection of deposited platelets by a charge sensor and discuss progress in locating the deposited platelets via image analysis. Finally, we discuss possibilities for depositing 2D materials to create strained or corrugated structures.