Metastable atom lithography: a potential candidate of the NGL and the first results at the NIMS

In the past decade, many efforts have been made to developing the next generation lithography (NGL) for patterning silicon surfaces with sub-100 nm resolution. Here we report a new approach to pattern gold surfaces on muscovite mica by using a metastable helium (He*) atom beam and octanethiol and dodecanethiole (DDT) self-assembled monolayer. The SEM image of the pattern is shown.