Selective metal deposition using metal-covered scanning tunneling microscope tips

✍ Scribed by M. Takai; H. Andoh; H. Miyazaki; T. Tsuruhara

• Book ID: 104306270
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 242 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-9317
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-9317(96)00111-6

✦ Synopsis

tunneling microscope

A technique to fabricate nano structures of various metals without contamination has been developed using metal-covered scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tips. The metal, Au or AI, evaporated onto a W core tip, was selectively deposited onto highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), a thin gold layer on Si, or S-terminated GaAs by applying positive voltage pulses. The threshold voltage, above which deposition occurred, showed a linear dependence on the tip-sample separation and differed for tip and target materials, suggesting that the fabrication mechanism is field-induced and the deposition takes place by the transfer of tip material to the sample.