Performance of location-selective catalytic reactions with or on the surfaces of solids in the nanometer or subnanometer range

• US 5,298,760 A
• Filed: 08/04/1992
• Issued: 03/29/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: BASF AG (BASF SE)
• Original Assignee: BASF AG (BASF SE)
• Inventors: Fuchs, Harald, Schimmel, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Berman, Jack I.
• Application Number:
  US07/924,496
• Time in Patent Office: 602 Days
• Field of Search: 250/492.3, 250/492.2, 369/126
• US Class Current: 250/492.3
• CPC Class Codes: B82B 3/00 Manufacture or treatment of nanostructures by manipulation of individual atoms or molecules, or limited collections of atoms or molecules as discrete units
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 15/00 Nanotechnology for interacting, sensing or actuating, e.g. quantum dots as markers in protein assays or molecular motors
• CPC Class Codes: G01Q 70/14 Particular materials
• CPC Class Codes: G01Q 80/00 Applications, other than SPM, of scanning-probe techniques manufacture or treatment of nanostructures B82B3/00; recording or reproducing information using near-field interaction G11B9/12, G11B11/24, G11B13/08
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/14 using microscopic probe means , i.e. recording or reproducing by means directly associated with the tip of a microscopic electrical probe as used in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy [STM] or Atomic Force Microscopy [AFM] for inducing physical or electrical perturbations in a recording medium; Record carriers or media specially adapted for such transducing of information marking using electrical current B41M5/20; measuring roughness or irregularity of surfaces G01B7/34; details of scanning-probe microscopes G01Q
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/1409 Heads
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/317 for changing properties of the objects or for applying thin layers thereon, e.g. for ion implantation H01J37/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/859 including substrate treatment

Abstract

In a process for the performance of location-selective catalytic reactions with or on the surfaces of solids in the nanometer or subnanometer range, the surface in question is chemically modified by means of a surface-sensitive scanning probe containing the catalytic material. This process is used for information storage.

Claims

1. A process for the specific and location-selective performance of catalytic chemical reactions with or on the surface of a solid in the nanometer or subnanometer range, which consists essentially of locating as catalyst, a surface sensitive scanning probe which contains the catalytic material, during the reaction, directly above the part of the surface with which or on which the chemical reaction takes place.

2. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the catalytically active surface-sensitive probe employed is the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) or the tip of the lever of a scanning atomic force microscope (SAFM).

3. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the probe is made from or coated with the catalytically active material.

4. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein, before the specific, location-selective surface reaction is carried out, the surface is imaged by means of the surface-sensitive scanning probe at a resolution in the nanometer range or in the atomic range, and the tip is positioned at a predefined atomic location within the image area precisely at selected points on the surface in the nanometer or subnanometer range.

5. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the local chemical reaction of the surface is carried out by supplying a gas as reactant, the gas being blown onto the surface after the catalytically active surface-sensitive scanning probe has been positioned directly at the point at which the reaction of the gas with the surface is to take place, the catalytically induced reaction of the gas with the surface only occurring in the immediate vicinity of the catalytically active probe, and the excess gas being removed in each case when the local reaction is complete.

6. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reaction only takes place at a significant reaction rate at elevated temperature, and the elevated temperature is brought about locally at the desired location of the chemical reaction by briefly applying an electrical current of sufficient magnitude between the surface-sensitive scanning probe and the sample.

7. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the catalytic reaction of the surface at the location of the surface-sensitive scanning probe is initiated by a transient electrical field.

8. A process as claimed in claim 7, wherein the transient electrical field is generated using an electrical voltage pulse between the catalytically active scanning probe and the surface.

9. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the catalytic reaction of the surface at the location of the surface-sensitive scanning probe is initiated by irradiation with electromagnetic radiation.

10. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the chemical surface reaction of the surface of the solid takes place without the participation or presence of a further reactant.

11. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the surface of the solid is a semiconducting layered material.

12. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the surface of the solid is an adsorbate layer present on the surface or is a liquid-crystalline phase.

13. A process for erasing the marks obtained as claimed in claim 1 by supplying thermal energy, irradiation with electromagnetic radiation or chemical treatment of the surface.