A facile method of producing femtoliter metal cups by pulsed laser ablation.
Cuplike structures of Au, Ag, Cu, Zn, Nb, Cd, Al, In, and Sn in the size range of 300 nm to a few micrometers with an internal volume of a few femtoliters have been produced by the laser ablation of metal targets in a vacuum, by optimizing, in each case, the laser fluence and the substrate temperature. The metal droplets impinging on the substrate seem to undergo a hydraulic jump driven by the surface tension forces before solidifying into cups. The cups are robust and can be functionalized with biomarkers, filled with nanoparticle sols, oxidized to crucibles, or detached from the substrate without causing any deformation. We envisage their potential applications as femtoliter metal containers.
John
Neena Susan
NS
Selvi
N R
NR
Mathur
Manikandan
M
Govindarajan
Rama
R
Kulkarni
G U
GU