Transmission electron beam drilling for nanoscale fabrication

We demonstrated that a high-resolution focused electron beam can be used to fabricate metal nanostructures and devices on insulating membranes by nanosculpting metal films. This top-down focused electron beam drilling method works by the controlled ablation of materias to produce nanoscale devices with near-atomic the precision. In addition, we have fabricated a single-electron transistor (SET) on free-standing transparent Si3N4 membranes, which permits enables us to explore quantum tunneling effects in narrow-constriction structures. The produced SET exhibited distinct Coulomb-blockade current-voltage characteristics and gate-modulated current at 4.2 K. Its high resolution, geometrical flexibility, and yield make this fabrication method attractive for many applications including nanoelectronics and quantum devices.