Nanometer Scale Lithography with Evaporated Polystyrene

We report on a fabrication method of extremely small metallic nanostructures which uses commercially available polystyrene with low molecular weight as a negative resist for electron-beam lithography. The samples were covered with polystyrene by physical vapor deposition. The method allows to form structures with a high (5–10 nm) spatial resolution and a high yield on non-uniform arbitrary shaped surfaces. The technological processes for forming line or dot arrays, electrodes with nanogaps, and radially located electrodes were developed. The process parameters are presented in this work. The possibility of fabrication of nanostructures on a cantilever tip apex of the scanning probe microscope was also demonstrated.