Effect of surface roughness on dip-pen nanolithography.
In the present work, five gold thin films with various surface roughnesses were prepared by sputtering and the influence of the surface roughness of gold substrate on dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) was studied using 1-octadecanethiol (ODT) and poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluorethylene) [P(VDFTrFE)] as inks. It was shown that surface roughness influences both the contrast in lateral force microscopy (LFM) images and the transport rate of ink. Surfaces with less roughness give good contrast in LFM images, while rough surfaces give poor contrast. The transport rate of ink increases as the roughness decreases; however, the extent of the influence is strongly ink-dependent.
Tang
Qian
Q
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, P R. China.
Shi
San-Qiang
SQ
Zhou
Li-Min
LM
D006046:Gold; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D036103:Nanotechnology; D013499:Surface Properties
D006046:Gold