Patent ID: 8647814

Claim:
A method for forming a pattern of an inorganic material, comprising: a) patterning a resist-coated substrate using variable pressure electron beam lithography, b) surface treating the substrate after resist development, c) spin coating the patterned resist-coated substrate with a sol precursor of said inorganic material wherein the sol precursor comprises at least one of an inorganic sol precursor and an organic sol precursor followed by heating the spin coated substrate at a temperature to gelate the sol precursor, d) removing resist in solvent to leave a pattern with a lateral dimension that is less than 200 nm, and e) heating the coated substrate at an elevated temperature to crystallize the deposited sol precursor and convert it to ceramic material, wherein said ceramic material is a sub-200 nm sized structure in one or more of the following forms: (1) a ring or other annular structure with a lateral wall dimension less than 200 nm; (2) epitaxial single crystal structure with a lateral dimension less than 200 nm; and (3) beaded structure with a lateral dimension less than 200 nm.