Abstract
A technique involving two steps of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has been developed to produce ultra-smooth metal surfaces with an RMS roughness better than 0.1 nm. A figure of merit termed degree of smoothness (DOS) is proposed for the purpose of quantifying the extent of smoothness of a polished metal surface. A post CMP metal slurry cleaning solution was used for cleaning Pt slurry for the first time and by applying special techniques, a very high quality clean surface was attained. Applications of the polished Pt electrodes in interfacing molecular switching devices with self-assembled monolayers of molecules have been found to dramatically improve the packing and orientation of the molecular monolayer with a huge improvement in the molecular electronics device yields. These smooth metal surfaces may open doors for new opportunities in future nanoscale devices.
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81.05.Bx; 81.16.Rf; 81.65.Ps
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Saif Islam, M., Jung, G., Ha, T. et al. Ultra-smooth platinum surfaces for nanoscale devices fabricated using chemical mechanical polishing. Appl. Phys. A 80, 1385–1389 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-004-3170-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-004-3170-4