Parallel Fabrication and Electronic Characterization of Nanostructured and Nanoheterostructured Metal Surfaces

摘要

Among the more notable accomplishments during the course of this contract, we identify the following results: A precisely ordered and precisely located array of 5 nm diameter nanoclusters has been fabricated by first etching into the substrate an array of holes with diameters comparable to the size of nanoclusters sought and then depositing adatoms on the substrate. Our methods enable rapid fabrication of arrays for fundamental studies and provide a route to manufacturability of nanostructure arrays for technological purposes. We reported the ability to control the morphology of nanometer thick Ti oxide films which were created via a parallel nanofabrication process using a two- dimensional protein crystal as a template. Atomic force microscopy was used to examine the evolution of these structures from a periodic array of nanometer- scale dots (nanodots) to a screen containing a periodic array of nanometer-scale holes (nanoscreen) as the film thickness was increased. We reported the creation of large arrays of nanometer-scale dots (nanodot arrays) with the oxides of several additional metals near Ti in the periodic table. A computer simulation of nanoscale hole formation based on curvature dependent sputtering and surface self-diffusion was formulated. The model simulates the experimental data from our nanopatterning process quite well.