Nanolithography Study Using Scanning Probe Microscope

Abstract

Recently, the interest to design useful nanostructures in science and technology has rapidly increased and these technologies will be superior for the fabrication of nanostructures (Iwanaga & Darling, 2005; Martin et al., 2005; Sadegh Hassani et al., 2010). The patterning of material in this scale is one of the great importances for future lithography in order to attain higher integration density for semiconductor devices (Sadegh Hassani & Sobat, 2011). Conventional lithography techniques, i.e., those divided to optical and electron beam lithography are either cost-intensive or unsuitable to handle the large variety of organic and biological systems available in nanotechnology. Hence, the various driving forces have been considered for development of nanofabrication techniques (Geissler & Xia, 2004; Quate, 1997; Sadegh Hassani & Sobat, 2011). Applying of these techniques has started approximately since 1990 and it has given rise to the establishment of different nanolithography methods, which one of the most important method is scanning probe based lithography. An interesting way of performing nanometer pattern is direct scratching of a sample surface mechanically by a probe. The controlled patterning of nanometer scale features with the scanning probe microscope (SPM) is known as scanning probe lithography (SPL) (Irmer et al., 1998). Many reports have been presented about various lithographic methods by this technique (Garcia, 2004; Garcia, 2006). SPL would also be ideal for evaluation of mechanical characteristic of surfaces. Scanning probe microscopy, such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), has become a standard technique for obtaining topographical images of surface with atomic resolution (Hyon et al., 1999). In addition, it may be used to study friction force, surface adhesion and modifying a sample surface (Sundararajan & Bhushan, 2000; Burnham et al., 1991; Aime et al., 1994; Sadegh Hassani & Ebrahimpoor Ziaie, 2006; Ebrahimpoor Ziaie et al., 2008). Manipulating surfaces, creating atomic assembly, fabricating chemical patterns and characterizing various mechanical properties of materials in nanometer regime are enabled by this technique (Hyon et al., 1999; Sadegh Hassani & Sobat, 2011; Bouchiat & Esteve, 1996). Nanolithography with AFM is also a tool to fabricate nanometer-scale structures with at least one lateral dimension between the size of an individual atom and approximately 100 nm on silicon or other surfaces (Wilder & Quate, 1998). This technique is used during the fabrication of leading edge semiconductor integrated circuits (Sugimura & Nakagiri, 1997)