Transmission electron microscopy observation of a single Ni dot fabricated using scanning tunneling microscopy

Recent developments in high-technology experimental equipment and semiconductor micro fabrication technology have made it possible to study various characteristic quantum phenomena such as quantized conductance and coulomb-blockade effects at the nano-scale level. One recent study attempted to fabricate a normal-super-normal double tunneling junction in a split-gate wire. In this study, we describe the results of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation of a single 100 nm wide and 200 nm high Ni dot, which had been fabricated using scanning tunneling microscopy (SEM), placed on the top of the bridge of a Si-doped GaAs epitaxial layer grown by molecular beam epitaxy using a Riber 32 apparatus. The results from the successful use of TEM to observe the results of a SEM fabrication procedure support the contention that the fabricated Ni dot became a poly-crystal that was amorphous between GaAs crystal and a surface dot fabricated by applying voltage pulse to a STM tip, covered by an oxygenated film approximately 20 nm thick.