Growth and electrical properties of multidimensional tungsten nano-buliding blocks

We report the demonstration of tungsten nanoblocks such as nanorods, nanoblocks, and nanocylinders through a simple thermal process of sputtered W films. The formation of various types of tungsten nanostructures was based on the difference in the magnitude of the residual film stress and in its spatial distribution, which depends on the deposition pressure during the sputter deposition of self-catalytic W thin film. The resulting shapes displayed well-controlled structures that have characteristic dimensionalities such as zero-dimensional dot, one-dimensional wire, and two-dimensional nanosheet with the deposition pressure. The results demonstrate the possibility of construction of in situ multidimensional achitectures through the one-step thermal process which uses a self-catalytic function of each thin film. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.