Nanohole Fabrication using FIB, EB and AFM for Biomedical Applications

Although many efforts have been made in making nanometer-sized holes, there is still a major challenge in fabricating individual single-digit nanometer holes in a more controllable way for different materials, size distribution and hole shapes. In this paper we describe our efforts to use a top down approach in nano-fabrication method to make single-digit nanoholes. There are three major steps towards the fabrication of a single-digit nanohole. 1) Preparing the freestanding thin film by epitaxial deposition and electrochemical etching. 2) Making sub-micro holes (0.2 ㎛ to 0.02 ㎛) by focused ion beam (FIB), electron beam (EB), atomic force microscope (AFM), and others methods. 3) Reducing the hole size to less than 10 ㎚ by epitaxial deposition, FIB or EB induced deposition and micro coating. Preliminary work has been done on thin films (30 ㎚ in thickness) preparation, sub-micron hole fabrication, and E-beam induced deposition. The results are very promising.