Atomic-scale patterning of hydrogen terminated Ge(001) by scanning tunneling microscopy

TL;DR

This study demonstrates atomic-scale lithography on hydrogen-terminated Ge(001) surfaces using STM, enabling precise patterning from 200 nm down to 1.8 nm, which could advance atomic-scale device fabrication in germanium.

Contribution

The paper introduces a method for atomic-scale patterning of Ge(001) via STM-induced hydrogen desorption, achieving nanoscale features and exploring bias effects.

Findings

Achieved lithographic patterns with features from 200 nm to 1.8 nm.

Demonstrated control of pattern size via tip-to-sample bias.

Opened pathways for atomic-scale device fabrication in germanium.

Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate atomic-scale lithography on hydrogen terminated Ge(001. The lithographic patterns were obtained by selectively desorbing hydrogen atoms from a H resist layer adsorbed on a clean, atomically flat Ge(001) surface with a scanning tunneling microscope tip operating in ultra-high vacuum. The influence of the tip-to-sample bias on the lithographic process have been investigated. Lithographic patterns with feature-sizes from 200 nm to 1.8 nm have been achieved by varying the tip-to-sample bias. These results open up the possibility of a scanning-probe lithography approach to the fabrication of future atomic-scale devices in germanium.