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 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.

Print publication: Issue 49 (9 December 2009)
Received 25 June 2009, in final form 14 October 2009
Published 6 November 2009