Langmuir, Vol.11, No.1, 211-213, 1995
Writing and Reading at Nanoscale with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope
The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has grown and evolved at an incredible rate. Now STM not only is used as a powerful imaging tool to provide atomic resolution surface topography but also quickly becomes a nanoscale manipulator after slight modification. In this paper, we describe a nanoscale lithography technique, which was developed by combining STM with an electrochemical cell, We have demonstrated the feasibility of this technique, which allows us to write, read, and erase letters at a nanoscale level. At present, there still exist some difficulties but we believe that the ability to write, edit, and archive symbols and patterns on a nanoscale level constitutes a significant advance and an enabling concept in nanolithography.
Keywords:ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE;NANOMETER-SCALE;BEAM RESIST;MANIPULATION;SURFACES;DEPOSITION;PATTERN;TIP