Direct nanometer-scale patterning by the cantilever oscillation of an atomic force microscope

Abstract

A resistless nanostructure patterning technique using tip oscillation of an atomic force microscope (AFM) was systematically investigated. Commercial AFM cantilevers are used to successfully generate patterns as narrow as 10 nm on a GaAs surface, without further sharpening of the tips. Reliable patterns with fully controlled width and depth are achieved by adjusting the feedback gain and the scan speed. This process allows nanometer-scale patterning to be performed simply, and is well suited for nanodevice fabrication.

High-speed atomic force microscope lithography using a piezo tube scanner driven by a sinusoidal waveform

“…In the case of high-speed lithography by triangular-shaped driving, the unstable contact and non-uniform reaction between a tip and the coated polymer film caused by vibrations made the line patterns non-uniform and regularly swayed. In the case of a high-speed sinusoidal motion, despite the lithographic motion having a higher speed at the center of a line pattern than at both sides, the FWHM of patterns was not much influenced by the slightly different speed because the decrease of the width of patterns was exponentially related to the increase in speed [19,21]. In this research, this sinusoidal waveform driving reducing the mechanical shock in the piezo tube leads to strong confidence in imaging and lithography.…”

Invited Review Nanoscale devices fabricated by dynamic ploughing with an atomic force microscope

“…One of the earliest works on AFM lithography demonstrated the feasibility of indenting a complex line pattern in a polymer surface by the dynamic ploughing technique [10]. Direct machining of a semiconductor surface by dynamic ploughing suffers from the lower force compared with the contact mode, which limits the depth of grooves to a few nm [16,18,19], and from the rapid degradation of the Si tip. These problems can be answered by a sequential process where in the first step only a soft polymer masking layer has to be ploughed followed by the transfer of the pattern by wet-chemical or reactive ion etching (Fig.…”

Nanolithography Study Using Scanning Probe Microscope

“…SPL would also be ideal for evaluation of mechanical characteristic of surfaces. Scanning probe microscopy, such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), has become a standard technique for obtaining topographical images of surface with atomic resolution (Hyon et al, 1999). In addition, it may be used to study friction force, surface adhesion and modifying a sample surface (Sundararajan & Bhushan, 2000;Burnham et al, 1991;Aime et al, 1994;Sadegh Hassani & Ebrahimpoor Ziaie, 2006;Ebrahimpoor Ziaie et al, 2008).…”

“…In addition, it may be used to study friction force, surface adhesion and modifying a sample surface (Sundararajan & Bhushan, 2000;Burnham et al, 1991;Aime et al, 1994;Sadegh Hassani & Ebrahimpoor Ziaie, 2006;Ebrahimpoor Ziaie et al, 2008). Manipulating surfaces, creating atomic assembly, fabricating chemical patterns and characterizing various mechanical properties of materials in nanometer regime are enabled by this technique (Hyon et al, 1999;Sadegh Hassani & Sobat, 2011;Bouchiat & Esteve, 1996). Nanolithography with AFM is also a tool to fabricate nanometer-scale structures with at least one lateral dimension between the size of an individual atom and approximately 100 nm on silicon or other surfaces (Wilder & Quate, 1998).…”