Nanostructure fabrication in metals, insulators, and semiconductors using self-developing metal inorganic resist

AlF3 evaporated thin films of 20–80 nm thickness have been used as self-developing positive resists and also as negative resists forming metallic Al structures. The exposure mechanism of AlF3 resist has been investigated, and nanometer scale features have been fabricated in both cases at exposure doses of about 20 C/cm2 and 2 C/cm2 at 100 keV, respectively. Using reactive ion etching, AlF3 resist patterns have been transferred into Si3N4, resulting in feature sizes as small as 20 nm.