Nano-Traceability Study of a Cr Standard Grating Fabricated by Laser-Focused Atomic Deposition

Abstract

A dimensional artifact is developed, which is a chromium (Cr) deposition grating fabricated by a laser-focused atomic deposition technique. The mean pitch of the grating is measured by using a metrological atomic force microscope with a large range, where a series of reference signs have been performed to locate the deposition area. Cosine error of the measurement result is analyzed and eliminated by the iterative angle calibration. The measurement result shows that the mean pitch of the grating is 212.66 ± 0.02 nm, which is very close to half of the standing laser wavelength (𝜆 = 425.55 nm). This means that the grating has traceability with high accuracy and can substitute the laser interference technology for instrument calibration. Moreover, using the Cr deposition grating as a nano standard can shorten the traceability chain and improve the practical application.

Natural square ruler at nanoscale

“…The detailed experimental setup in our laboratory was described in previous studies. [28][29][30][31] Figure 4 shows AFM images of the two-step laser-focused atomic depositions with rotation angles of 45°and 90°. As expected, a highly uniform rhombus array of dots was fabricated at the interlaced positions in both situations; the distance between each pair of parallel sides in the rhombus shape is expected to be 212.8 nm, determined by the half-wavelength of the laser.…”