A versatile technique for micro and nano structuring of conductive thin metal layers using electric field assisted dissolution

Abstract

A simple, versatile technique for structuring conductive thin metal films is proposed. Over the last years, glass poling and electric field assisted dissolution of metal nanoparticles and films have been the basis of new approaches for fabrication of micro and nanostructures on glass. Here we demonstrate how the sequential combination of glass poling and electric field assisted dissolution can be used to circumvent the necessity of glass as supporting substrate. In short, a patterned electrode is applied to selectively modify by glass poling an auxiliary glass substrate that is later used to induce indirect electric field assisted dissolution of a metal layer deposited on an arbitrary substrate. The proposed method is verified by microstructuring conductive thin metal layers (Ag and Cu) deposited on silicon wafers. This technique enables transferring the pattern from a primary electrode onto conductive thin metal film using inexpensive equipment and the process duration is independent on the pattern area. The primary electrode can be used many times to fabricate selectively modified auxiliary glass substrates and the only limitation on the substrate supporting the final metal microstructure is to be able to sustain moderately elevated temperature and electric field for couple of hours. This method turns out to reproduce the original pattern better than other approaches based on glass poling. Overall, the proposed method significantly expands the application range of glass poling and electric field assisted dissolution as competitive structuring techniques.