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Letter

Toward Atomic-Scale Device Fabrication in Silicon Using Scanning Probe Microscopy

Frank J. Ruess,* Lars Oberbeck, Michelle Y. Simmons, Kuan Eng J. Goh, Alex R. Hamilton, Toby Hallam, Steven R. Schofield, Neil J. Curson, and Robert G. Clark

Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology, School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Nano Letters, 2004, 4 (10), pp 1969–1973

DOI: 10.1021/nl048808v

Publication Date (Web): September 28, 2004

Corresponding author. E-mail: ruess@phys.unsw.edu.au. Phone: +61 2 9385 6567. Fax: +61 2 9385 6138.

Abstract

We present a complete fabrication process for the creation of robust nano-and atomic-scale devices in silicon using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). In particular we develop registration markers which, in combination with a custom-designed STM-scanning electron microscope (SEM) system, solve one of the key fabrication problems − connecting the STM-patterned buried phosphorus-doped devices, fabricated in the ultrahigh vacuum environment, to the outside world. The first devices demonstrate the feasibility of this technology and confirm the presence of quantum confinement in devices as electron propagation is laterally constricted by STM patterning.

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