Figure 7: Microdominos
A second type of edge lithography takes advantage of growing thin films over large areas with a thickness between 1 and 50 nm. Converting these films - which are thin in the vertical direction - into structures that are thin in the lateral direction is an approach to fabricating nanostructures. In one method, we fabricate thin posts, and then shear the posts in the lateral direction much like dominos; this method exposes the lateral edges of the posts to the top surface.