MRI Instrumentation Development: Nanolithography Using Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) and Local Electrostatic Discharge

该主要研究仪器（MRI）奖为开发一种仪器提供资金，用于在纳米尺度上在半导体、金属和氧化物表面上创建结构。将购买一台研究级静电放电机，并对其进行改进，使分辨率得到大幅度提高。本文将构建一种新的真空纳米光刻工具，该工具利用近端探针技术的原理，在表面和尖端之间高度可控的静电放电可以高度特异性地解离目标表面上的原子。该设备将用于制造纳米尺寸的半导体和磁性器件，以开发量子力学行为，如量子化电阻和纳米接触弹道磁电阻。该项目将改进目前的制造能力，缩小到1纳米的特征尺寸，并将允许相对廉价的量子器件制造。它将被设计为现有带电粒子光刻工具（如聚焦离子束铣床和标准电子显微镜）的附加工具；并且可以被大学各个部门的研究人员使用，包括化学工程、材料科学、化学和生物化学。它将进一步加强马里兰大学帕克分校在纳米结构领域的研究，并能促进纳米加工的进步。这项技术很简单，可以很容易地转移到各个大学和研究实验室。该仪器可以转换为通过直接更换流体层来添加或去除材料，并且基于真空，它与半导体制造工艺兼容。因此，纳米结构可以相对便宜地制造，并可以刺激人工纳米结构的蓬勃研究和发展。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award provides funds to develop an instrument to create structures on semiconductor, metallic and oxide surfaces at the nanometer length scales. A research grade electrostatic discharge machine will be purchased and will be modified to enable substantially improved resolution. A new vacuum nanolithography tool will be constructed, which utilizes the principle of proximal probe technique wherein the highly controlled electrostatic discharge between surface and tip can dissociate atoms on the target surface with a high degree of specificity. The equipment will be used to create semiconductor and magnetic devices with nanometer dimensions in order to exploit quantum mechanical behavior such as quantization of resistance and nano-contact ballistic magnetoresistance. This project will improve upon current manufacturing capability down to1 nm feature size and will allow relatively inexpensive fabrication of quantum devices. It will be designed as a bolt-on addition to existing charged particle lithography tools such as focused ion beam milling machines as well as standard electron microscopes; and can be used by university researchers in various departments including chemical engineering, materials science, as well as chemistry and biochemistry. It will further strengthen the University of Maryland, College Park, in the field of nanostructures and can promote advances in nanomachining. The technique is straightforward and can be transferred readily to various universities and research laboratories. The instrumentation can be converted for use to either add or remove material by a straightforward replacement of the fluid layer, and being vacuum-based, it is compatible with semiconductor manufacturing processes. Nanostructures could thus be made relatively inexpensively and could stimulate vigorous research and development of artificial nanostructures.