Fabrication of high-density nanostructures with an atomic force microscope

High-density alternating nanostructures of octadecanethiol and decanethiol have been fabricated on Au surfaces by nanografting with an atomic force microscope. Fabrication of nanostructures with a step size of less than 1 nm in the vertical direction has been demonstrated. Feature sizes at the full width at half maximum of 8.3 nm with a lattice periodicity of 13.7 nm are achieved. Nanostructures of changing sizes are fabricated by scaling down the gap between grafted nanopatterns. It is found that the measured height of the thiol nanostructures decreases with decreasing size. The effect of tip penetration on the height and on the shape of the fabricated nanostructures is discussed. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.