The so-called atomic-saw method, which had been applied to semiconductor heterostructures, was successfully used here to prepare low-dimensional structures. Dislocations which were generated by plastic deformation were used to cut a 2nm film, that had been epitaxially grown onto a (001)MgO substrate, into 1-dimensional structures (stripes) or zero-dimensional structures (boxes). A statistical analysis, of the widths and shifts of the stripes which were created, revealed that these 2 parameters could be controlled by a suitable choice of plastic strain.

L.Ressier, J.Diaz, J.P.Peyrade: Applied Physics Letters, 1997, 70[16], 2195-7