In this letter, we report a method to fabricate nano-column arrays with different shapes and in-plane orientations by glancing angle deposition. By changing the rate of the rotation during each revolution, we can fabricate nano-columns with circular, elliptical, triangle, rectangular, and pentagon shapes. Depending on the nucleation sites, we can even fabricate flowerlike nano-columns. This method has potential application to produce 3-D lattice.

Nanometre-size cobalt columns with tilt angle ranging from ∼0º to ∼40º and fixed density on Si(100) were fabricated by combining oblique-angle physical evaporation with controlled substrate motion. The column tilt angle can be controlled by the speed and phase of substrate rotation in addition to the angle of the incident vapour beam. A simple geometrical model is proposed to describe the relationship between the tilt angle of the cobalt columns and the rotational parameters (speed and phase), and is consistent with our experimental results.