Low-damage electron beam lithography for nanostructures on Bi2Te3-class topological insulator thin films
Abstract
Nanostructured topological insulators (TIs) have the potential to impact a wide array of condensed matter physics topics, ranging from Majorana physics to spintronics. However, the most common TI materials, the Bi2Se3 family, are easily damaged during nanofabrication of devices. In this paper, we show that electron beam lithography performed with a 30 or 50 kV accelerating voltage—common for nanopatterning in academic facilities—damages both nonmagnetic TIs and their magnetically doped counterparts at unacceptable levels. We additionally demonstrate that electron beam lithography with a 10 kV accelerating voltage produces minimal damage detectable through low-temperature electronic transport. Although reduced accelerating voltages present challenges in creating fine features, we show that with careful choice of processing parameters, particularly the resist, 100 nm features are reliably achievable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 23, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1063/5.0144726
Entities
People
- David Goldhaber-Gordon
- Ilan T. Rosen
- Kang L. Wang
- Lei Pan
- Linsey K. Rodenbach
- Lixuan Tai
- Marc A. Kastner
- Molly P. Andersen
- Peng Zhang
- Stanley Lin
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Basic Energy Sciences
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Stanford University