NANOSCALE ATOMIC LITHOGRAPHY WITH A CESIUM ATOM BEAM

We have demonstrated the lithographic production of a periodic nanostr ucture by focusing a transversely laser cooled cesium atomic beam with a standing-wave light field. With a self-assembled monolayer used as the resist on a gold surface, exposure to cesium atoms locally changes the wetability. Subsequently a wet-etching process transfers the patt ern to the underlying gold film. We have generated lines with a separa tion of half the wavelength of the cesium D-2 line (852 nm) and a widt h of about 120 nm and covering a large area of approximately 1 mm(2).