Nanoscale patterning of self-assembled monolayers with electrons

We show the fabrication of gold nanostructures using self-assembled monolay ers of aliphatic and aromatic thiols as positive and negative electron beam resists. We applied a simple and versatile proximity printing technique us ing focused ion beam structured stencil masks and low energy (300 eV) elect rons. We also used conventional e-beam lithography with a beam energy of 2. 5 keV and doses from 3500 to 80 000 muC/cm(2). Gold patterns were generated by wet etching in KCN/KOH and characterized by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The width of the finest lines is similar to 20 nm; their edge definition is limited by the isotropic etching process in the polycrystalline gold. (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(00 )05906-0].