Investigation of nanoscale electro machining (nano-EM) in dielectric oil

There is a great need to produce nanoscale features on diverse and sometimes difficult-to-machine materials for electronic and bio-medical applications. This paper describes an electro machining (EM) process at nanoscale, implemented using a scanning probe platinum-iridium (Pt-Ir) electrode tool (15-20 nm radius) in dielectric oil. The experiments were conducted by maintaining a gap of 2 nm between the tool and the workpiece. These experiments have successfully demonstrated that controlled and consistent machined features, as small as 10 nm in diameter, on atomically flat gold can be obtained. It is suggested that resonant tunnelling through dielectric oil molecules causes the removal of material.