SANTA： Self-aligned nanotrench ablation via Joule heating for probing sub-20 nm devices

作     者：Feng Xiong Sanchit Deshmukh Sungduk Hong Yuan Dai Ashkan Behnam Feifei Lian Eric Pop 

作者机构：Department of Electrical Engineering Stanford University Stanford CA 94305 USA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana IL 6180 I USA 

出 版 物：《Nano Research》 (纳米研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2016年第9卷第10期

页      面：2950-2959页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 070205[理学-凝聚态物理] 08[工学] 080501[工学-材料物理与化学] 082701[工学-核能科学与工程] 0805[工学-材料科学与工程（可授工学、理学学位）] 0827[工学-核科学与技术] 0702[理学-物理学] 

基　　金：We thank Dr. Eilam Yalon and Dr. Ilya Karpov for technical support and helpful discussions. We acknowledge partial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant 1430530  SRC/Intel grant 2014-IN-2532  the Stanford SystemX Alliance  and the Stanford Nano- and Quantum Science and Engineering (NQSE) Postdoctoral Fellowship (F. X.) 

主　　题：nanolithography carbon nanotubes graphene finite element self-aligned fabrication nanoscale thermal transport 

摘      要：Manipulating materials at the nanometer scale is challenging, particularly if alignment with nanoscale electrodes is desired. Here, we describe a lithography-free, self-aligned nanotrench ablation （SANTA） technique to create nanoscale ＂trenches＂ in a polymer like poly（methyl methacrylate） （PMMA）. The nanotrenches are self-aligned with carbon nanotube （CNT） or graphene ribbon electrodes through a simple Joule heating process. Using simulations and experiments we investigated how the Joule power, ambient temperature, PMMA thickness, and substrate properties affect the spatial resolution of this technique. We achieved sub-20 nm nanotrenches, for the first time, by lowering the ambient temperature and reducing the PMMA thickness. We also demonstrated a functioning nanoscale resistive memory （RRAM） bit self- aligned with a CNT control device, achieved through the SANTA approach. This technique provides an elegant and inexpensive method to probe nanoscale devices using self-aligned electrodes, without the use of conventional alignment or lithography steps.