Fabrication of 5 nm Resolution Electrodes for Molecular Devices by Means of Electron Beam Lithography

Abstract

Electron beam lithography is used to fabricate two-metal electrode tip-shaped structures. The distance between the tips is continuously controlled to be between 5 and 70 nm. The electron beam lithography process is robust and the tip separation is well controlled in the sense that the smallest distance between the tips is a consequence of the design and not a consequence of randomly distributed metal spots around the tip area. Interest in these structures is due to the fact that they can be used to fabricate rectifiers, working with single molecule, designed to exhibit semiconductor properties.

A Reliable Method for Fabricating sub-10 nm Gap Junctions Without Using Electron Beam Lithography

“…Meanwhile, a variety of techniques for narrow gap junction fabrication have already been demonstrated. One of the most popular techniques is electron beam lithography (EBL) [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Commercial EBL systems have the ability to focus electrons to diameters less than 10 nm, enabling the fabrication of structures at the nanometer level.…”

Nanoelectronic devices with reactively fabricated semiconductor

“…2 The concept that nanometer level devices perform the basic functions of digital electronics may be realized by means of a variety of techniques, such as experiments based on monomolecular devices, 1 molecular junction, 2,3 electrodeposition of nanoparticles, 4 nanolithography. 5,6 In this letter, we suggest the attainment of complete electrical nanodevices based on the Hall effect through a thermal activated reaction between rare-earth transition metal and dielectric material, using a nanosecond laser pulse or nanoresolution electron beam. A rare-earth transition metal ͓͑RE-TM, TbFeCo͔͒ has a strong affinity for oxygen and sulfur to form a variety of compounds: 7 Tb 2 S 3 , Tb 2 O 3 , TbO 2 , FeS, FeO, Fe 2 O 3 , Fe 3 O 4 , Co 2 S 2 , CoS, CoO, and Co 3 O 4 .…”

Is There A Minimum Size and a Maximum Speed for a Nanoscale Amplifier?

“…Many versions of a coplanar nanojunction approaching the design shown in Figure 4 have been proposed in recent years: unsupported platinium electrodes grown at the end of a supported 25‐nm coplanar nanojunction, 14 break junctions made by controlling the break of a mesoscopic metal wire using piezoelectric drivers 15 as well as standard e ‐beam nanolithography coplanar metal‐vacuum‐metal nanojunctions 16 or embeded metal‐insulator‐metal nanojunctions. 17 Apart from the STM and the break junction, where the size of the vacuum gap is controlled by steps of a few picometers, the other techniques produce gap sizes in the 5‐nm range.…”