Selective area in situ conversion of Si (0 0 1) hydrophobic to hydrophilic surface by excimer laser irradiation in hydrogen peroxide

Abstract

We report on a method of rapid conversion of a hydrophobic to hydrophilic state of an Si (0 0 1) surface irradiated with a relatively low number of pulses of an excimer laser. Hydrophilic Si (0 0 1), characterized by the surface contact angle (CA) of near 15°, is fabricated following irradiation with either KrF or ArF excimer lasers of hydrophobic samples (CA ∼ 75°) immersed in a 0.01% H2O2/H2O solution. The chemical and structural analysis carried with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy measurements confirmed the formation of OH-terminated Si (0 0 1) surface with no detectable change in the surface morphology of the laser-irradiated material. To investigate the efficiency of this laser-induced hydrophilization process, we demonstrate a selective area immobilization of biotin-conjugated fluorescein-stained nanospheres outside of the laser-irradiated area. The results demonstrate the potential of the method for the fabrication of biosensing architectures and advancements of the Si-based microfluidic device technology.