Metallic nanowires by full wafer stencil lithography

Aluminum and gold nanowires were fabricated using 100 mm stencil wafers containing nanoslits fabricated with a focused ion beam. The stencils were aligned and the nanowires deposited on a substrate with predefined electrical pads. The morphology and resistivity of the wires were studied. Nanowires down to 70 nm wide and 5 mum long have been achieved showing a resistivity of 10 microOmegacm for Al and 5 microOmegacm for Au and maximum current density of approximately 10(8) A/cm(2). This proves the capability of stencil lithography for the fabrication of metallic nanowires on a full wafer scale.