Inertially assisted nanoscale self-assembly

Abstract

We present a simple and versatile method for integrating submicron objects ontopre-determined locations on a substrate. The method relies on augmenting inertial forcesusing centrifugal motion and geometric constraints to guide the placement of submicronobjects on a substrate with minimal requirements for surface engineering andbinding chemistries. Here, we demonstrate the utility of the method for placing goldparticles, metal nanorods and inorganic nanocrystals. The method has demonstratedhigh yield of self-assembly for submicron particles with a variety of shapes andsizes. We have been able to get a near-perfect yield for filling hundreds of trapswith nanoparticles in only 20 min. Two hundred nanometer diameter nanorodswere self-assembled into an array of 256 traps on the template with 92% yield.1.4 µm and 300 nm sodium chloride crystals were self-assembled in arrays of 7000 and 576 traps,respectively, with near-perfect yield in filling each site. Due to its convenient set-up andhigh performance, inertially assisted self-assembly can be easily adopted and used for avariety of integration needs on the submicron scale.