A facile "air-molding" method for nanofabrication.
In this letter, we demonstrate a spherical nanocavities fabrication using an "air-molding" method, which is implemented by modulating the pressure difference across air-liquid interfaces in nanoholes on the mold. The cavities formation is theoretically considered and experimentally verified at macroscale first, and then a series of experiments are performed over a patterned surface with sub-300 nm holes by varying the pressure difference by sending a PDMS prepolymer coated mold into a vacuum chamber with changeable pressure. Results show that the air-molding method for spherical cavities fabrication is feasible not only at macroscale, but also at the nanoscale when introducing a pressure difference across the air-liquid interface. And the cavities shape is easily controlled by modulating the pressure in the vacuum chamber. The spherical cavities in this paper have application potential in the optical field and in micro- and nanofluidics.
Zhou
Ming
M
Center for Photon Manufacturing Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, PR China 212013. zm_laser@126.com
Li
Jian
J
Yan
Feng
F
Fan
Xiaomeng
X
Cai
Lan
L