title: Measurement of mass transfer during dip-pen nanolithography with phospholipids.
abstract: Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) has been extensively used before for patterning surfaces; however a complete understanding of the ink transport mechanisms is still lacking. Moreover, quality control of the fabricated structures is a bottleneck in DPN fabrication, and one aspect of this is the quantification of the ink mass transfer to the substrate during the lithographic process. There is a demand for measuring the exact amount of molecules deposited on a surface by lithographic methods, especially for biological applications. This article demonstrates a quantitative method for measuring the amount of ink transferred onto the substrate in DPN with phospholipids by dynamic force spectroscopy. To achieve this, the harmonic oscillation of a microcantilever in an atomic force microscope is used, obtaining picogram mass sensitivity in the determination of mass deposition.
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76344 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Soma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirtz
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fuchs
mesh_terms: D006813:Humidity; D007281:Ink; D008970:Molecular Weight; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000032:analysis*; D014732:Vibration
chemical_list: D010743:Phospholipids