Behind the buzz and beyond the hype: Our Nanowerk-exclusive
feature articles Posted: Jun 28th, 2010 Novel maskless e-beam
technique a promising tool for engineering metallic
nanostructures (Nanowerk Spotlight) The manufacture of certain
types of nanostructures – nanotubes, graphene, nanoparticles,
etc. – has already entered industrial-scale mass production.
However, the controlled fabrication of nanostructures with
arbitrary shape and defined chemical composition is still a
major challenge in nanotechnology applications. It appears that
electron beams from electron microscopes (EM) – nowadays
routinely focused down to the nanometer regime – are ideal
candidates for versatile tools for nanotechnology (see our
recent Nanowerk Spotlight: "Direct-write process brings
nanotechnology fabrication closer to mass production"). However,
their usage is mostly restricted by the conditions in the
corresponding electron microscopes, since most EMs are housed in
high vacuum chambers the unintended electron-beam-induced depo