| AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Thin Film | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session TF-WeM |
| Session: | Nanostructuring Thin Films I |
| Presenter: | A.W. Knoll, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland |
| Authors: | A.W. Knoll, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland D. Pires, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland U. Drechsler, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland J.L. Hedrick, IBM Almaden Research Center M. Despont, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland U.T. Duerig, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Progress in nanotechnology is intimately linked to the existence of high quality methods for producing nanoscale objects and patterns at surfaces. Scanning probe technologies are intrinsically capable of addressing real space with atomic resolution and have been used to fabricate nano-scale devices with exceptional quality. However, high resolution patterning in combination with sufficient throughput remains challenging. We have discovered that organic molecular glasses can be reproducibly removed at the micro-second time scale with nanometer scale precision using heated probes, which opens up new perspectives for nanopatterning.
In our experiments, a thin film of molecular glass with a thickness of 10-100 nm is deposited on a substrate by spin-coating or evaporation. The material is locally desorbed by heating the tip to 300-500 ºC and applying a mechanical force of 50-100 nN for a duration of 5 μs, leaving behind a well defined void. By laterally displacing the probe and repeating the process, any arbitrary pattern can be written whereby the resolution of the process is determined by the apex dimensions of the probe.
Material removal can be cumulated thereby enabling the fabrication of three-dimensional structures. A replica of the Matterhorn was fabricated by consecutive removal of molecular glass layers. The almost perfect conformal reproduction of the original proves that the final structure is a linear superposition of well defined single patterning steps.
The created two and three-dimensional structures were transferred into silicon substrates using standard RIE technology. Additionally, to enhance the aspect ratio, a three layer transfer process has been developed. It enables vertical amplification of the written structures by a factor of 50 without significant loss of lateral resolution.
Using this new technology, one is able to fabricate complex three-dimensionally textured substrates, e.g. for the guided and directed assembly of shape-matching objects. The technique also offers a competitive alternative in terms of resolution and speed to high-resolution electron beam lithography.