Ion-beam sculpting at nanometre length scales
Ion-beam sculpting at nanometre length scales
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DOI：
10.1038/35084037
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发表时间：
2001-07-12
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Golovchenko, JA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Li, J;Stein, D;Golovchenko, JA
在纳米尺度上操纵物质对于许多电子、化学和生物学进步是重要的（1-3），但是目前的固态制造方法不能可重复地实现在纳米尺度上的尺寸控制。在这里，我们报告了一种在这些维度上形成物质的方法，该方法使用低能离子束，并揭示了发生在各种材料和几何形状中的令人惊讶的原子输运现象。该方法在反馈控制溅射系统中实现，该系统提供对离子束曝光和样品温度的精细控制。我们称这种方法为“离子束雕刻”，并将其应用于在薄的绝缘固态膜中制造分子级孔或纳米孔的问题。这样的孔可以用于定位分子尺度的电结和开关（4-6），并用作掩模（7）以产生其他小尺度结构。纳米孔还在所有生命系统中用作膜通道，在那里它们作为极其敏感的机电装置，调节电位、离子流和分子跨细胞膜的运输（8）。我们表明，离子束雕刻可以用来形成一个类似的固态设备：一个强大的电子检测器，由Si（3）N（4）膜中的单个纳米孔组成，能够在水溶液中记录单个DNA分子。
Manipulating matter at the nanometre scale is important for many electronic, chemical and biological advances(1-3), but present solid-state fabrication methods do not reproducibly achieve dimensional control at the nanometre scale. Here we report a means of fashioning matter at these dimensions that uses low-energy ion beams and reveals surprising atomic transport phenomena that occur in a variety of materials and geometries. The method is implemented in a feedback-controlled sputtering system that provides fine control over ion beam exposure and sample temperature. We call the method "ion-beam sculpting'', and apply it to the problem of fabricating a molecular-scale hole, or nanopore, in a thin insulating solid-state membrane. Such pores can serve to localize molecular-scale electrical junctions and switches(4-6) and function as masks(7) to create other small-scale structures. Nanopores also function as membrane channels in all living systems, where they serve as extremely sensitive electro-mechanical devices that regulate electric potential, ionic flow, and molecular transport across cellular membranes(8). We show that ion-beam sculpting can be used to fashion an analogous solid-state device: a robust electronic detector consisting of a single nanopore in a Si(3)N(4) membrane, capable of registering single DNA molecules in aqueous solution.