High resolution fabrication of nanostructures using controlled proximity nanostencil lithography

Nanostencil lithography has a number of distinct benefits that make it an attractive nanofabrication processes, but the inability to fabricate features with nanometer precision has significantly limited its utility. In this paper, we describe a nanostencil lithography process that provides sub-15 nm resolution even for 40-nm thick structures by using a sacrificial layer to control the proximity between the stencil and substrate, thereby enhancing the correspondence between nanostencil patterns and fabricated nanostructures. We anticipate that controlled proximity nanostencil lithography will provide an environmentally stable, clean, and positive-tone candidate for fabrication of nanostructures with high-resolution. Significant advances in device physics across optical, electrical, and magnetic modalities have been enabled by the ability to fabricate structures with nanoscale precision. There is currently a large variety of top-down nanostructure fabrication methods available, such as electron beam lithography 1 , * Correspondence: Rohit Karnik, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA 02139, USA. Email: [email protected], Phone: 617-324-1155.