Nanolithography with an atomic force microscope by means of vector-scan controlled dynamic plowing

We present a nanolithography technique based on an atomic force microscope. A thin resist layer on the sample surface is plastically indented by a vib rating tip. Controlling of the vibration amplitude and tip movement enables one to plow a narrow furrow along line segments of arbitrary length and di rection. Different line segments which form a complex pattern can be plowed at a scan speed up to 5 mu m/s. The geometric distortion of the resist pat tern is less than 50 nm, where at scan speed in excess of 1 mu m/s an inter rupt of at least 10 ms is necessary between the line segments. The minimum offset error in positioning a pattern with respect to existing features is less than 4% of the scanning field. The patterns are transferred into SiO2, Si, GaAs, Ti, and Au by wet-chemical etching. Minimum linewidth is 25 nm i n 1.5 nm oxide layers, 75 nm in 10 nm Ti film and 40 nm in 10 nm Au. On sem iconductor surfaces smooth and perfectly shaped V grooves of 55 nm width ar e obtained. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)01307-9] .