E-beam lithography processing of Au-nanowire contacts for development of gas sensors based on tungsten-oxide nanorods self-assembled on mica

Abstract

This work describes the processing of Au nanowire arrays on insulating substrate developed to contact tungsten–oxide nanorods self–organised on the mica surface. The combination of electron beam lithography in scanning electron microscope and lift–off process is shown to be effective in fabricating nanocontact finger patterns with a line width of about 270 nm and 400 nm on bare and WO3 nanorod covered mica surfaces, respectively, separated by a few micrometre distance. It is shown that at right selection of the distance between Au nanowires, the applied procedure makes possible to contact WO3 nanorods of different length and density even if the nanostructures do not form an interconnected net. It opens the way for fabrication of single–wire nanosensors grown on insulating substrates.