Development of Highly Dense Material-Specific Fluorophore Labeling Method on Silicon-Based Semiconductor Materials for Three-Dimensional Multicolor Super-Resolution Fluorescence Imaging

The recent development of super-resolution fluorescencemicroscopy(SRM) has drastically improved the resolution of light microscopyto the order of tens of nanometers. However, the application of SRMto semiconductor materials remains challenging because fluorophorelabeling on inorganic materials with a high labeling density requiredfor nanoimaging has been limited with conventional surface functionalizationmethods. Here, a novel approach for highly dense material-specificfluorophore labeling methods on silicon-based materials has been developedand demonstrated for SRM imaging of semiconductor line patterns. Thisapproach is shown to selectively and sensitively probe different-sizedsilicon and silica line patterned arrays including edge structureson a wafer in three dimension, which has not been resolved by a conventionalmetrology system. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrate that thisnew method can detect nanoparticle defects with high sensitivity,suggesting its capability as an inspection tool for semiconductordefects. This new nanomaterial imaging approach is expected to drivefurther innovations in metrology tools and applications.