Field-assisted nanopatterning of metals, metal oxides and metal salts

Abstract

The tip-based nanofabrication method called field-assisted nanopatterning or FAN has nowbeen extended to the transfer of metals, metal oxides and metal salts onto various receivingsubstrates including highly ordered pyrolytic graphite, passivated gold and indium–tinoxide. Standard atomic force microscope tips were first dip-coated using suspensions ofinorganic compounds in solvent. The films prepared in this manner were non-uniform andcontained inorganic nanoparticles. Tip-based nanopatterning on chosen substrates wasconducted under high electric field conditions. The same tip was used for bothnanofabrication and imaging. Arbitrary patterns were formed with dimensionsthat ranged from tens of microns to sub-20 nm and were controlled by tuningthe tip bias during fabrication. Most tip-based nanopatterning techniques arelimited in terms of the type of species that can be deposited and the type ofsubstrates onto which the deposition occurs. With the successful deposition ofinorganic species reported here, FAN is demonstrated to be a truly versatile tip-basednanofabrication technique that is useful for the deposition of a wide variety of both organicand inorganic species including small molecules, large molecules and polymers.