NANOSCALE ENGINEERING USING CONTROLLABLE FORMATION OF ULTRA-THIN CRACKS IN HETEROSTRUCTURES

A new technique for fabrication of nano- and atomic- scale device elem ents and quantum systems which cannot be obtained by any other technol ogy is proposed. The technique is based an experimentally established possibility to create atomically sharp-edged cracks of a desired lengt h and direction in a given laver of heterostructure. Ultra-narrow (1 n m) and perfectly straight windows-slits in the GaAs laver-mask of semi conductor structures and atomicaly sharp -edged windows of a complicat ed form have been fabricfted for the fist time. It was shown, that the width of a window-slit can be varied with high precision needed for a self-alignment fabrication technology. Nerv maskless techniques for f abricating nanoscale elements are described.