AVS 45th International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Division Thursday Sessions
       Session NS-ThP

Paper NS-ThP22
Nanowire Formation Using a Resistively-Heated Piezoresistive Cantilever

Thursday, November 5, 1998, 5:30 pm, Room Hall A

Session: Nanometer-Scale Science and Technology Division Poster Session
Presenter: T. Uchihashi, National Research Institute for Metals, Japan
Authors: T. Uchihashi, National Research Institute for Metals, Japan
U. Ramsperger, National Research Institute for Metals, Japan
H. Nejoh, National Research Institute for Metals, Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
The main aim of our research is to fabricate atomically thin metal wires on a clean sample surface in UHV, and to investigate the electronic transport properties of such systems. For that system, it is expected that new phenomena, e.g., single electron tunneling effect, quantization of conductance, will be observed, and that relation between a structure of the wire and transport properties will be clarified. The procedures required to reach this aim would be as follows. 1) Evaporate a defined electrode pattern on a clean sample using a through-hole mask in UHV. This pattern has macroscopic electrodes, on which the four-point-probe leads is pressed, and microscopic electrodes for which a gap distance is a few micrometers. 2) Draw atomically thin metal wires in the gap between the electrodes in UHV using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) or an atomic force microscope (AFM). 3) Measure electronic transport properties of the wire in UHV, and at low temperatures if necessary. We succeeded in fabricating a through-hole mask using a discharge cutter machine and focused ion beam (FIB) machining. The discharge cutter machine is used for building the macroscopic pattern, and FIB for the microscopic structure of the through hole mask. Further we also succeeded in drawing thin gold wires with a width of a few tens of nanometer using an AFM cantilever. A piezoresistive cantilever (provided by Park Scientific Instruments) was first coated with gold by thermal evaporation. This cantilever can be heated up resistively with a power of about 30 mW by current running through it.@footnote 1@ The gold on the cantilever tip was transferred onto the surface of both a silicon and sapphire substrate. The minimum width of gold wires fabricated thus far is around 50nm. The fabrication method using a heated AFM cantilever can be applied not only to a conductive sample but also to a insulating sample like sapphire. This fact will eliminate the difficulty in measuring conductivity of ! ! ! nano-scale wire, especially at room temperature. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ H. J. Mamin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 69, 433 (1996)