Figure 7: Demonstration of atomic-fidelity lithography by ESD.

Shown is the ESD of hydrogen from the Si(100) 2×1:H surface with a 4-V sample bias, a 2-nA current set point, 2×10⁻³ C cm⁻¹ line dose and FDSS-generated tungsten probe. STM images are collected with a sample bias of −2 V and a current set point of 50 pA. All scale bars, 4 nm. (a) Dimer-row line width lithography is demonstrated. The image is a false-colour three-dimensional rendering where red represents passivated silicon, blue represents background surface features unrelated to patterning and green represents dangling bonds generated by the ESD process. (b) The same pattern is shown in its original form as a two-dimensional STM topograph. (c) A nanolithographic box 20×13 atoms in dimension is shown as a false-colour three-dimensional rendering similar to that in a. The feature has been generated by five successive depassivation patterns under identical patterning conditions. (d) Topographic STM data in two-dimensions is also shown for the nanobox pattern.