Abstract
Colloidal lithography is an innovative fabrication technique employing spherical, nanoscale crystals as a lithographic mask for the low cost realization of nanoscale patterning. The features of the resulting nanostructures are related to the particle size, deposition conditions and interactions involved. In this work, we studied the absorption of polystyrene spheres onto a substrate and discuss the effect of particle–substrate and particle–particle interactions on their organization. Depending on the nature and the strength of the interactions acting in the colloidal film formation, two different strategies were developed in order to control the number of particles on the surface and the interparticle distance, namely changing the salt concentration and absorption time in the particle solution. These approaches enabled the realization of large area (≈cm2) patterning of nanoscale holes (nanoholes) and nanoscale disks (nanodisks) of different sizes and materials.
Highlights
In recent years, ordered nanostructured arrays have attracted great interest because of their applications in many fields such as photonics/plasmonics [1], phononics [2,3], spintronics/magnonics [4,5], biosensors and energy harvesting [6-8]
In the case of bare substrates, only few, rather isolated particles were observed on the surface
Ordered nanostructured arrays are key elements for applications in various fields; methods for producing them over large areas and at low cost are needed for full exploitation
Summary
In recent years, ordered nanostructured arrays have attracted great interest because of their applications in many fields such as photonics/plasmonics [1], phononics [2,3], spintronics/magnonics [4,5], biosensors and energy harvesting [6-8]. The fabrication of nanostructured systems involves techniques such as electron beam and focused ion beam lithography in order to realize arrays of nanoscale features with precise size, shape and distribution control. These processes have high cost and low speed and these limitations encourage the development of alternative methods for parallel nanofabrication. Closedpacked arrangements of the colloidal spheres have been demonstrated by spin coating, controlled evaporation, Langmuir–Blodgett coating or electrophoretic deposition techniques [18] These strategies can enable the highly controlled fabrication of metal nanostructures over a very large area, allowing the realization of plasmonic materials characterized by tunable optical features [22]
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