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 vibrating tip. Controlling of the vibration amplitude and tip movement enables one to plow a narrow furrow along line segments of arbitrary length and direction. 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 pattern is less than 50 nm, where at scan speed in excess of 1 mu m/s an interrupt 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 in 1.5 nm oxide layers, 75 nm in 10 nm Ti film and 40 nm in 10 nm Au. On semiconductor surfaces smooth and perfectly shaped V grooves of 55 nm width are obtained. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)01307-9].