Nanometer molecular lithography

Abstract

We demonstrate a three-step parallel process for the fabrication of a 1-nm-thick metal (Ta/W) film with 15-nm-diam holes periodically arranged on a triangular lattice of parameter 22 nm. In this process, a two-dimensional crystalline protein monolayer is deposited on a smooth substrate, metal coated by evaporation, and then ion milled. Under ion milling this protein-metal heterostructure exhibits differential metal removal and rearrangement which varies on a protein molecular length scale. The spatial ordering of the resulting holes has the same nanometer periodicity as the protein lattice.