Shrinking Graphene Nanopore Using Electron-Beam-Induced Deposition for Single Molecule Detection

Solid-state nanopore has already shown success of single molecule detection and graphene nanopore is potential for successful DNA sequencing. Here, we present a fast and controllable way to fabricate sub-5 nm nanopore on graphene membrane. The process includes two steps: sputtering a large size nanopore using a conventional focused ion beam (FIB) and shrinking the large nanopore to a few nanometers using scanning electron microscope (SEM). We also demonstrated the ability of the graphene nanopores fabricated in this manner to detect individual 48Kbp λ-DNA molecules.