Scanning nano-lithography

Kaholek M, Lee WK, LaMattina B, Caster KC, Zauscher S. Fabrication of stimulus-responsive nanopattemed polymer bmshes by scanning-probe lithography. Nano Lett 2004b 4 373-376. 

Beyond imaging many more applications of SPM exist [1, 16, 17]. Each SPM realization has a spectroscopy mode where, for example, one parameter is determined as a function of another (e.g. current as a function of voltage) [18, 19]. Objects of nanometer size, can be moved (manipulated) with the scanning probe tips through the forces acting between the tip (or the electric field of the tip) and the objects [20-22]. Additionally on-site on-time [23], and even "real-time [24] observation of the processes on surfaces, e.g. adsorbate diffusion, is possible. On top of this, nano-lithography can be performed both with STM and AFM [25, 26]. 

Sun, S., and G.J. Leggett. 2004. Matching the resolution of electron beam lithography by scanning near-field photolithography. Nano Lett. 4 1381-1384. 

The methods that are commonly used to produce semiconductors and electronic materials are now being used in catalyst preparation. As recently reported, lithography has been used to deposit metal in predetermined patterns. Deposition of small clusters using nano-scale scanning tunneling microscopic tip has also been demonstrated. 

Nanofabrication is the collection of techniques that generates reproducible patterns whose elements have sizes of 100 nm or less in at least one dimension. The majority of commercial nanofabrication takes place in the semiconductor industry. Essentially all integrated circuits are made hy a combination of electron-beam lithography (EBL), which generates nanoscale information in the form of features on photomasks, and photolithography, which replicates that information. We refer to these techniques as conventional methods of nano-fabrication. They are the workhorses of modem microelectronics, and are not likely to he replaced in the foreseeable future. Despite the ubiquity of scanning beam and photolithographic methods in commercial produaion, there are many circumstances outside of microelectronics where conventional techniques are prohihitively expensive, tm-available, or inapplicable. Further, processes developed for... 

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