Fachgruppe Nanostrukturierte Materialien    

A technological scheme for the fabrication of metallic point contacts is presented. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) (J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 14(6) (1996) 4129–4133) plays a key role in the process determining the critical dimension of the point contact. The pattern obtained by imprint has been studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The masking properties of the polymer film which also serves as an insulating layer in our device, separating the electrodes between which the point contact is located, have been controlled. Our study confirms that the imprint step involved in the process and the chosen thermoplastic polymer meet the requirements for fabricating nm-scale metallic point contacts.