Metallic nanowires on SmSi interface

The manufacture of nanowires and the exploitation of their specific properties are the great fields of fundamental and industrial research. Some nanostructuration can be obtained with the help of conventional lithography technics; nevertheless these technics are limited by the optical resolution, the introduction of many defects and the residual damage related to engraving. A new approach, which consists to create nanowires in-situ on pre structured SmSi(111) interface has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). This interface is known to permit the creation of many different 1D templates in the submonolayer range. We show in this study, the possibility to create Fe nano-objects of well-defined size distributed in an ordered array.