title: Penetrating the oxide barrier in situ and separating freestanding porous anodic alumina films in one step.
abstract: A simple method for penetrating the barrier layer of an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) film and for detaching the AAO film from residual Al foil was developed by reversing the bias voltage in situ after the anodization process is completed. With this technique, we have been able to obtain large pieces of free-standing AAO membranes with regular pore sizes of sub-10 nm. By combining Ar ion milling and wetting enhancement processes, Au nanowires were grown in the sub-10 nm pores of the AAO films. Further scaling down of the pore size and extension to the deposition of nanowires and nanotubes of materials other than Au should be possible by further optimizing this procedure.
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Institute and Center for Nanoscale Science, Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA. mut1@psu.edu
authors.forename: Mingliang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Shengyong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jinguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Nitesh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wertz
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Moses H W
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Mallouk