Progress towards atom lithography on iron

Abstract

We aim to apply atom optical techniques to iron to produce periodic magnetic nanostructures. Laser cooling has been observed experimentally, and calculations predict that a bright beam can be obtained with 200 μrad divergence. We expect to be able to laser focus this beam to feature sizes around 10 nm by the use of nanoscale mechanical beam masking and velocity selection via a supersonic source. In separate calculations, we have modelled surface diffusion of the atoms during deposition using a kinetic Monte Carlo approach taking into account the Ehrlich–Schwoebel barrier. These calculations successfully explain anomalous broadening of structures observed in similar experiments on chromium [Anderson et al., Phys. Rev. A 59 (1999) 2476].