title: Manual, In situ, Real-Time Nanofabrication using Cracking through Indentation.
abstract: Nanofabrication has seen an increasing demand for applications in many fields of science and technology, but its production still requires relatively difficult, time-consuming, and expensive processes. Here we report a simple but very effective one dimensional (1D) nano-patterning technology that suggests a new nanofabrication method. This new technique involves the control of naturally propagating cracks initiated through simple, manually generated indentation, obviating the necessity of complicated equipment and elaborate experimental environments such as those that employ clean rooms, high vacuums, and the fastidious maintenance of processing temperatures. The channel fabricated with this technique can be as narrow as 10 nm with unlimited length and very high cross-sectional aspect ratio, an accomplishment difficult even for a state-of-the-art technology such as e-beam lithography. More interestingly, the fabrication speed can be controlled and achieved to as little as several hundred micrometers per second. Along with the simplicity and real-time fabrication capability of the technique, this tunable fabrication speed makes the method introduced here the authentic nanofabrication for in situ experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Kyunghee University, Seoul 02447, Korea.|Sensor System Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Techonology, Seoul 02792, Korea.
authors.forename: Koo Hyun
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
authors.forename: Young D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
authors.forename: Junyeob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.affiliation: Sensor System Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Techonology, Seoul 02792, Korea.
authors.forename: Deokha
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Woo