Fabrication of in situ ultrathin anodic aluminum oxide layers for nanostructuring on silicon substrate

Abstract

The authors demonstrate a method for the fabrication of in situ ultrathin porous anodic aluminum oxide layers (aspect ratio<2:1) on Si, which can be directly used as templates for nanodot preparation and for pattern transfer. The regular shape of the aluminum oxide pores is maintained even when the thickness of the aluminum oxide template is reduced to 50 nm. By using these in situ ultrathin templates as lift-off masks, the authors successfully prepared a Bax Sr1-x Ti O3 nanodot array on Si surface. Furthermore, these nanotemplates are employed as lithographic masks to transfer the nanopattern into the silicon substrate. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.