Olivier Guise⁺, Hubertus Marbach⁺,
Jeremy Levy^#, John T. Yates, Jr. ^+#, Joachim Ahner* 

Surface Science Center
Center for Oxide Semiconductor Materials for Quantum Computation
Department of Chemistry⁺ Department of Physics^#
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: 412-624-8420, FAX: 412-624-6003

*Seagate Technology, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

 
It is well appreciated, that as the size of material objects approaches nanometer dimensions, the materials structural and electronic properties change. The investigation of these effects forms a broad active area of current research aimed at the optimization of nanometer sized materials properties for use in a large field of technologies including electronic devices and high-density data storage.

 
We report the development of novel subnanometer manipulative and analytical devices for imaging, chemically analyzing and manipulation of nanometer scaled material. Two different versions of the nanoworkbench are operating currently at the Surface Science Center of the University of Pittsburgh and at the Seagate Research Center in Pittsburgh. The instrument at Seagate consists of a modified commercially available high resolution scanning electron microscope (HRSEM lateral resolution down to 1 nm at 10 KV) in combination with a set of four unique nano-manipulators, which can be equipped with different kind of probes for nano-scale materials characterization in pressure ranges from 10^-1 to 10^-7 mbar. At the University of Pittsburgh a completely home-built UHV version of the nanoworkbench is in operation. Several inter-connected UHV chambers allow the in-situ deposition of thin-films and conventional surface analysis. The resolution of the SEM of the UHV system is limited to about 50 nm.

 
We report first results obtained by using both versions of the nanoworkbench, where we succeeded in writing patterns of ultra-small carbon-containing dots (8nm in diameter) with high position accuracy (<5nm) by electron-beam-induced dissociation of carbon containing background gases. In parallel studies, the electron-stimulated carbon film creation on Si(100) using various pure hydrocarbon gases was studied in UHV by AES, TPD and XPS. The thermal stability of the carbon film and dots has been studied over the temperature range from 300K - 1400K, where the carbon converts to SiC, giving high thermal stability. We are planning to use these carbon templates for the growth of germanium quantum dots, important for the development of novel quantum electronic devices.

 
This work was supported by DARPA QuIST through ARO contract number DAAD-19-01-1-0650.

Date:  

Thursday, October 9, 2003

12:00 noon, room 260, Wright-Rieman Chemistry Laboratory

Lunch:  11:45 a.m.

Abstract in PDF format