MICROSTRUCTURING BY NANOPARTICLE IMPACT LITHOGRAPHY

Hypervelocity impacts of nanoparticles are used for eroding surface ar ea selectively via shadow masks in contact or in proximity to the targ et surface. By atomic force microscopy, the impacted surfaces have bee n found to show about 20 nm depth in silicon after 0.1 s of bombardmen t at impact energies of the order of 100 keV. Prolonged erosion of the targets by nanoparticle bombardment leads to smoothened eroded surfac es, e.g. of CVD diamond. The nanoparticle material can be chosen to re act under the impact locally with the target to generate volatile prod ucts.