As technology continues its evolution towards ever smaller and faster design profiles there has been great interest over the last decade or so in the physics and engineering associated with nanotechnology. Improved nanofabrication techniques have produced a vast array of new technologies including advanced integrated circuits, medical devices, sensors, information processing and many more. But as we push the design limits to smaller and smaller length scales it becomes difficult to resolve and control processes via traditional means such as electron beam lithography. An alternative method of nanofabrication via anodic oxidation of aluminum has gained much attention in recent years due to the natural self-assemblage of complex, ordered nanoporus aluminum oxide inherent to the anodization process.

Anodized aluminum has been an integral component to aerospace and consumer based industries for over half a century; and the anodization process, resulting in a thin amorphous layer of hard, corrosion resistant oxide called alumina, is applicable over a broad range of experimental conditions. However under the right conditions, the resulting oxide forms a self-ordered array of uniform cylindrical nanopores. The resulting porous alumina makes an ideal mask for deposition of metallic or semiconducting substrates to form devices such as nanowires or quantum dots. In this talk I will discuss the anodization process and its implementation for the purposes of nanofabrication.