Dissipative light masks for atomic nanofabrication

We investigate the applicability of laser cooling in intense blue detuned standing light waves for generating nanostructures by direct deposition of atoms on a surface. We report on our results concerning the structure width and modulation depth of the resulting structures which are important parameters for future technological applications. As the main result we find that these new masks can lead to a significant reduction of the background. The results have been obtained employing a Monte Carlo simulation which was used to check closed formulae for structure width and background. These results allow a straightforward optimization of the performance of masks for specific experimental parameters and atomic species.