Sub-5 nm nanostructures fabricated by atomic layer deposition using a carbon nanotube template

The fabrication of nanostructures having diameters of sub-5 nm is very a important issue for bottom-up nanofabrication of nanoscale devices. In this work, we report a highly controllable method to create sub-5 nm nano-trenches and nanowires by combining area-selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as templates. Alumina nano-trenches having a depth of 2.6 ∼ 3.0 nm and SiO₂ nano-trenches having a depth of 1.9 ∼ 2.2 nm fully guided by the SWNTs have been formed on SiO₂/Si substrate. Through infilling ZnO material by ALD in alumina nano-trenches, well-defined ZnO nanowires having a thickness of 3.1 ∼ 3.3 nm have been fabricated. In order to improve the electrical properties of ZnO nanowires, as-fabricated ZnO nanowires by ALD were annealed at 350 °C in air for 60 min. As a result, we successfully demonstrated that as-synthesized ZnO nanowire using a specific template can be made for various high-density resistive components in the nanoelectronics industry.