Au “Ink” for AFM “Dip-Pen” Nanolithography

• Published in: Langmuir Vol. 17; no. 9; pp. 2575 - 2578
• Main Authors: Maynor, Benjamin W, Li, Yan, Liu, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 01.05.2001
• ISSN: 0743-7463; 1520-5827
• DOI: 10.1021/la001755m

Scanning probe lithography is a rapidly growing research field, in which atomic force microscope based “dip-pen” nanolithography (DPN) is a simple new technique for creating chemically distinct nanostructures on surfaces in a “direct-write” fashion. Previous works demonstrate the transport of alkanethiols to a gold substrate, resulting in the formation of patterned self-assembled monolayers. Here, we show that surface-induced reduction of metal ions combined with DPN can be used to create metallic nanostructures on Si surfaces. Au nanostructures with sub-100-nm resolution can be created routinely, showing that the DPN technique is a general method for nanofabrication.