A self-assembled array of nanometer-sized holes in alumina has been adapted as a mask for conventional, broad-area, ion implantation. The mask pattern, made up of nanoholes arranged in a two-dimensional triangular array with a 100 nm period and a 55 nm diameter pore size, has been successfully transferred onto single crystal (100) SrTiO3 substrates using 200 and 500 keV energy Pt ion bombardments, at fluences sufficient to amorphize the exposed areas. The amorphized material was removed by selective chemical etching resulting in a periodic array of holes about 55 nm in diameter and 115 nm deep. This parallel, nonlithographic approach is adaptable to submicron depth, variable array geometry and scale, and to any material where a selective etch can be found for the irradiated volume. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Conventional, broad-area, ion implantation has been combined with unconventional masking to create 2-D geometrical patterns of amorphization in single crystals, with selectable motifs. The patterns are fully developed by use of selective etching. Two examples are discussed. In the first example, a self-assembled array (with lattice spacing ∼1 μm) of silica spheres is used as an implant mask over InP. The variation of the mask thickness created by the sphere geometry modulates the implantation depth in a periodic fashion, which is subsequently revealed after selective etching of the associated amorphized volumes. In the second example, nanochannel arrays in an alumina film are used as an implant mask to produce a hexagonal closed packed array of amorphized cylinders in InP and SrTiO 3 substrates. The ion beam-amorphized regions of the substrate are then removed by selective chemical etching to achieve the full 3-D patterning of 55 nm diameter holes on a 100 nm lattice spacing.