In the burgeoning field of quantum size effect (QSE) semiconductor nanomaterials, quantum devices and circuitry, it is useful to consider the nanophysics fabrication procedures"] and nanochemistry synthesis methodologies[21 for achieving quantum dot and quantum antidot arrays.
Physicists can create an organized array of nanometer dimension holes in a thin film or wafer of a semiconductor using, for example, scanning electron beam lithography. At low porosities, one has an array of non-intersecting cylindrical pores running perpendicular to the surface. In practice, some variation is to be expected in pore size, shape and separation.
Increasing the porosity further eventually causes merging of adjacent pores and the creation of arrays of isolated semiconductor columns. This approach provides us with the ability to transform a bulk semiconductor, first into a nanoporous semiconductor and then into an array of quantum dots. In the latter case, electrons are confined to a lattice of quantum dots. In the former, before adjacent pores merge, electrons are constrained to the regions between the quantum dots. This is referred to as a lattice of quantum antidots.['] The properties of both of these classes of nanomaterials are dependent on the size and shape of the nanoclusters and nanopores, and are compositionaliy tunable.
Nanochemical approaches for synthesizing lattices of quantum dots and antidots necessitate the use of structural organization and self-assembly methods.[21 These usually involve templating and patterning techniques. For example, [