Directly Writing Nanodots on Silicon Surface by Combined-Dynamic Dip-Pen Nanolithography

• Published in: Key engineering materials 2014-01, Vol.609-610, p.191-195
• Main Authors: Cui, Jian Lei, Wang, Yang, Sun, Li Ning, Yang, Li Jun, Guo, Shou Wu, Xie, Hui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atomic force microscopy; Contact; Deposition; Dipping; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Silicon; Surface roughness
• ISSN: 1013-9826; 1662-9795; 1662-9795
• DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.609-610.191

Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN), based on atomic force microscope (AFM) system, is an effective method for nanoscale science and engineering, and the potential applications of DPN will be shown in the field of nanomechanics, nanomaterials, nanobiotechnology, nanomedicine. And the novel combined-dynamic mode DPN (CDDPN), rather than mostly used contact mode DPN or tapping mode DPN, becomes the important tool for the fabrication of nanodots with the direct-writing method of depositing the ink onto the hard silicon surface at the predetermined position, which is presented in the corresponding experiments. In addition, the size of nanodots gradually decreases in the diameter with the increase of the number of nanodots in the case of AFM tip dipping in ink once. However, the size in height does not monotonically reduce as the reduction of the ink, which is affected by the interaction among the relative humidity, AFM tip, substrate material, surface roughness, etc. For the better nanolithography quality of the nanodot, the nanolithography process, under the optimized process parameters, is accomplished once without the intermediate scan imaging process as much as possible.