IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Processing at the Nanoscale Monday Sessions
       Session PN-MoM

Paper PN-MoM4
Reliable Nanofabrication Method on Au Cluster Films in a Non-contact Mode with an Atomic Force Microscope

Monday, October 29, 2001, 10:40 am, Room 133

Session: Atomic/Nano-scale Manipulation
Presenter: K.-H. Park, ETRI, Republic of Korea
Authors: K.-H. Park, ETRI, Republic of Korea
J.Y. Kim, ETRI, Republic of Korea
J.S. Ha, ETRI, Republic of Korea
K.-B. Song, ETRI, Republic of Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Many kinds of nanofabrication methods have been studied on metal films using scanning probe microscopy so far. However, they are still far from the practical application for the data storage or lithography. Scanning tunneling microscopy(STM) is not an adequate technique because it reliably operates only at ultra high vacuum (UHV) and the throughput is very low.@footnote 1@ Contact mode fabrication methods of atomic force microscopy (AFM) also have shortcomings because the mechanical contact between the tip and the samples induces a significant damage to the tip apex causing the serious tip wear. Here, we devised a new reliable fabrication method by applying a local field on granular Au nanocluster films using conducting AFM tips in a noncontact mode. Au cluster thin films (10-50 nm) were deposited on silicons and glass substrates through the gas evaporation process under the partial Ar pressure of several mbar. The granular morphologies of the films are observed by STM at UHV in situ, and then the samples were transferred to an air ambient stage for AFM analysis. A reproducible creation of Au bits was obtained with the lateral dimension of 100 nm on granular films. The critical voltage for the fabrication is much larger than the case in a contact mode with some variation depending on the conductivity of the films. The reliability of nanofabrication is attributed to the field induced migration and current induced sintering mechanism without the contact process between the tip and samples. The near-field optical properties of fabricated structures are investigated in a view of an optical data storage. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ K.-H. Park et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. v75, 139 (1999)