Bottom-Up Generated Height Gauges for Silicon-Based Nanometrology.

Steady progress in integrated circuit design has forced basic metrology to adopt silicon lattice parameter as a secondary realization of the SI meter that lacks convenient physical gauges for precise surface measurements at a nanoscale. To employ this fundamental shift in nanoscience and nanotechnology, we propose a set of self-organized silicon surface morphologies as a gauge for height measurements within the whole nanoscale (0.3-100 nm) range.