Development of a Laboratory for Ultra High Resolution Electron Beam Nanofabrication and Imaging Research in Electrical Engineering and Physics

9601738谢勒：正在继续努力开发新的技术，以减小纳米结构的横向尺寸。随着电子显微镜设计的改进和图形转移过程的各向异性的优化，现在有可能制造出10 nm以下的结构。在这种规模机制下，预计会出现从根本上说新类型的设备行为。在这一领域，结构只有几十个原子，对尺寸的特殊敏感性意味着，即使在光刻和图案转移的分辨率和尺寸控制方面的微小改进(例如，两倍)也可以对我们解决新现象的能力产生深远影响。此外，更传统的器件，如半导体激光器，可以通过高分辨率光刻来改善和控制其行为。在此，作者提出，借助场发射电子显微镜进行的低压电子束光刻可以提供这种控制。请求提供资金，以建立一个超高分辨率电子束(电子束)纳米制造和成像实验室。该实验室将使在极低的电子加速电压下开发电子束光刻的新技术成为可能，并将允许在接近分子规模的尺寸范围内制造结构。它将作为NSF纳米制造国家实验室的补充；它的规模较小(由两名教授组成的核心小组，他们在纳米结构上合作了十年)有利于追求电子束光刻的开发工作--持续的、相当专业的工作，在较大的用户设施中不太容易进行。此外，这一合作还带来了对这些努力至关重要的专业知识和设备的独特组合。***

9601738 Scherer There is continuing effort to develop new techniques to reduce the lateral sizes of nanostructures. As the design of electron microscopes has improved, and the anisotropy of the pattern transfer processes is optimized, it is now becoming possible to fabricate structures below 10 nm. In this size regime fundamentally new types of device behavior are expected to occur. The exceptional sensitivity to size in this domain, in which structures are only tens of atoms across, means that even small improvements (e.g., factor of two) in the resolution and dimensional control of lithography and pattern transfer can have profound impact upon our ability to resolve new phenomena. In addition, the behavior of more conventional devices, such as semiconductor lasers, can be improved and controlled by high resolution lithography. Herein, the authors propose that low voltage electron beam lithography carried out by means of a field-emission electron microscope can provide such control. Funding is solicited to establish a laboratory of ultra high resolution electron beam (e-beam) nanofabrication and imaging. This laboratory will enable the development of new techniques for e-beam lithography at very low electron acceleration voltages, and will permit the fabrication of structures in the size regime approaching the molecular scale. It will serve to complement NSF's national laboratories for nanofabrication; its smaller size (a core group of two professors who have collaborated on nanostructures for a decade) is conducive to the pursuit of developmental work in electron beam lithography- sustained, rather specialized work that would be less facile in the larger user facilities. In addition, this collaboration brings together a unique combination of expertise and equipment that is essential for these endeavors. ***