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Letters to Nature

Nature 412, 166-169 (12 July 2001) | doi:10.1038/35084037; Received 6 February 2001; Accepted 11 May 2001

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Ion-beam sculpting at nanometre length scales

Jiali Li1, Derek Stein2, Ciaran McMullan3, Daniel Branton3, Michael J. Aziz2 & Jene A. Golovchenko1,2

  1. Department of Physics,
  2. Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and
  3. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Correspondence to: Jene A. Golovchenko1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.A.G. (e-mail: Email: golovchenko@physics.harvard.edu).

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Manipulating matter at the nanometre scale is important for many electronic, chemical and biological advances1, 2, 3, but present solid-state fabrication methods do not reproducibly achieve dimensional control at the nanometre scale. Here we report a means of fashioning matter at these dimensions that uses low-energy ion beams and reveals surprising atomic transport phenomena that occur in a variety of materials and geometries. The method is implemented in a feedback-controlled sputtering system that provides fine control over ion beam exposure and sample temperature. We call the method "ion-beam sculpting", and apply it to the problem of fabricating a molecular-scale hole, or nanopore, in a thin insulating solid-state membrane. Such pores can serve to localize molecular-scale electrical junctions and switches4, 5, 6 and function as masks7 to create other small-scale structures. Nanopores also function as membrane channels in all living systems, where they serve as extremely sensitive electro-mechanical devices that regulate electric potential, ionic flow, and molecular transport across cellular membranes8. We show that ion-beam sculpting can be used to fashion an analogous solid-state device: a robust electronic detector consisting of a single nanopore in a Si3N4 membrane, capable of registering single DNA molecules in aqueous solution.

  1. Department of Physics,
  2. Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and
  3. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Correspondence to: Jene A. Golovchenko1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.A.G. (e-mail: Email: golovchenko@physics.harvard.edu).