We describe the fabrication of metal nanogaps of sub-20nm in feature size using the proximity effect in electron beam lithography （EBL）. The proximity effect is extended to develop a flexible and practical method for preparing metal （e. g. Au or Ag） nanogaps and arrays in combination with a transfer process （e. g., deposition/lift-off）. Different from the direct gap-writing process,the nanogap precursor structures （nanoconnections） were designed by GDSII software and then written by electron beam. Following a deposition and lift-off process, the metal nanogaps were obtained and the nanogap size can be lowered to -10nm by controlling the exposure dose in EBL.
The nanoscale aluminum bowls were derived from the porous alumina and were used as the flexible nanoscale reactors for the preparation of nanoparticles. Both single source precursor and preprepared nanoparticles were induced in the nanobowls by melting the precursor/polymer films spin-coated on aluminum nanobowls for the formation of nanostructural composites in the nanobowls. We have prepared a single nanoparticle or just a small number of metal（e.g. Pt） nanoparticles or semiconductor nanoparticles（e.g. CdSe or CdSe/ZnS core-shell nanostructures） in the nanobowls.
