Ion beam lithography with single ions

Abstract

Although sub-micron structures have been fabricated with ion beam lithography using focused MeV ions, the best resolution of the method has not yet been approached. The best resolution is potentially around 10 nm which is the diameter of latent damage produced by the passage of a single fast ion through sensitive materials where the ion range could be tens of micrometres. In principle, the latent damage can be developed to create very high aspect ratio nanostructures. We call this technique single ion nanolithography. In order to approach the ultimate resolution of lithography with single ions we investigate the resist material, the exposure as a function of ion type and development paramete..