Nanosphere lithography: A materials general fabrication process for periodic particle array surfaces

TLDR: In this article, a variety of PPA surfaces have been prepared using identical single-layer and double-layer NSL masks made by self-assembly of polymer nanospheres with diameter, D =264 nm, and varying both the substrate material S and the particle material M. In the examples shown here, S was an insulator, semiconductor, or metal and M was a metal, inorganic ionic insulator or an organic π-electron semiconductor.

Abstract: In this article nanosphere lithography (NSL) is demonstrated to be a materials general fabrication process for the production of periodic particle array (PPA) surfaces having nanometer scale features. A variety of PPA surfaces have been prepared using identical single‐layer (SL) and double‐layer (DL) NSL masks made by self‐assembly of polymer nanospheres with diameter, D=264 nm, and varying both the substrate material S and the particle material M. In the examples shown here, S was an insulator, semiconductor, or metal and M was a metal, inorganic ionic insulator, or an organic π‐electron semiconductor. PPA structural characterization and determination of nanoparticle metrics was accomplished with atomic force microscopy. This is the first demonstration of nanometer scale PPA surfaces formed from molecular materials.