Anodic Oxidation Nanolithography on Semiconductors and Metallic Films: Possibilities and Limitations

One of the pillars of Nanotechnology is the possibility of matter manipulation on nanometer scale. At the basis of such pillar, the importance of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) is twofold: surface visualization and material manipulation at a sub-molecular level. There is a myriad of reports in the literature showing astonishing cases of high resolution imaging and manipulation carried out by different SPM techniques [1]. Within such examples, anodic oxidation nanolithography (AON) appears as one of the most promising tools due to its simplicity and applicability to a large variety of materials [1,2]. Therefore, this work reports on a detailed study of possibilities and limitations of AON towards the fabrication of semiconductorand/or metal-based devices.