Assembling uniform oxide lines and layers by overlapping dots and lines using AFM local oxidation

Atomic force microscopy lithography has been widely used for creating oxide patterns at the nanoscale on a number of different material surfaces. In this work we investigate the formation of uniform oxide lines and layers obtained by assembling arrays of overlapped oxide dots and lines, respectively. Simulations and experiments are conducted in order to assess the uniformity and consistency of the oxide structures produced, which are fundamental parameters for applications: in fact patterned oxides can act both as critical elements in nanoscale devices and as robust masks for etching processes. The superposition principle is applied to simulate the experimental data in order to identify the critical control parameters that allow for the formation of uniform oxide patterns: lines and rectangular layers.