Nano-scale lithography and in-situ electrical measurements based on the micro-chips in a transmission electron microscope

Abstract

In this paper, the in-situ membrane chips with the electrodes are fabricated with the micro-chip technique. Using a home-made in-situ holder, the fine lithography on the InAs nanowires is demonstrated by the focused electron beam at low temperature in a transmission electron microscope. It is found that the conductance of the nanowires decreases linearly with the cross section area decreasing from bigger than 10000 nm2 down to 800 nm2 by lithography. With this lithography at low temperature, a 10 nm nano-dot is fabricated on an InAs nanowire, and its electrical properties are measured at 77 and 300 K. The coulomb blockade effect is observed at 77 K due to the electron tunneling, while this phenomenon disappears at 300 K due to the stronger thermal fluctuation.