Patterning nonanethiol protected gold films by barium atoms

Self assembled monolayers (SAM) formed fromnonanethiols on thin gold films were exposed to a beam of ground state and metastable neutral barium atoms through a nickel mask. The interaction of the Ba atoms with the nonanethiol layer, followed by an etching process, creates well defined structures on the gold film, with features below 100 nm. We compared the interaction of ground state Ba atoms and SAM molecules with respect to metastable Ba atoms, finding that by using metastable atoms the Ba dose per SAM molecule is reduced. The results indicate that nanofabrication in the nanometer range with barium atoms is feasible.