Synthesis of Nano-Dots and Lines by Glancing Angle Deposition With Corrals

Abstract

This paper introduces using GLancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) with corral seeds for synthesizing nanodots and nanolines. GLAD is an advanced physical vapor deposition technique for creating three dimensional nanostructures. GLAD is commonly combined with pre-determined seeds on the substrate to create periodic nanofeature arrays; the seeds are usually artificial nucleation sites to rearrange the deposition patterns. However, the concept of corral seeds is different: the incident vapor will be depositing both on and inside the sacrificial layer of the corrals that consist various shapes; the desired nanostructures are grown from the overlapped deposition areas inside the corrals while the substrate rotates, depending on the shape of the corrals, and eventually will be remaining on the substrate when the sacrificial layer of the corral seeds is removed. The thickness of the sacrificial corrals along with the incident angle of the vapor define the shadow areas and deposition areas inside the corrals on the substrate. In this paper, three types of corrals are introduced: circular corrals, dumbbell corrals, and line corrals. The different nanofeatures of nanodots, limited-length nanolines and wafer-length nanolines created by different shaped corrals are presented. The fabricated nanodots and nanolines are potentially used in various optical and sensing applications. The two-step fabrication process of preparing corrals and GLAD provides numerous benefits for the synthesis of the nanofeatures.