| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Nanometer-scale Science and Technology | Monday Sessions |
| Session NS-MoA |
| Session: | Nanoscale Assembly and Manipulation II |
| Presenter: | A.A.G. Requicha, University of Southern California |
| Authors: | B. Mokaberi, University of Southern California D.J. Arbuckle, University of Southern California J. Yun, University of Southern California A.A.G. Requicha, University of Southern California |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Manipulation of nanoparticles by pushing them with the tip of an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has been under development for over a decade, and is now routinely performed in several laboratories around the world. However, AFM nanomanipulation of small particles with sizes on the order of 10 nm has been until now a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Automation has remained a desirable but elusive goal, primarily because of the spatial uncertainties associated with the positioning mechanisms of the AFM and with the manipulation process itself. Extensive user intervention has been required, resulting in very low throughput and severely limiting the complexity of structures that could be built with a reasonable amount of time and labor. This talk describes an automatic system for building patterns of nanoparticles by AFM manipulation. A planner determines the paths required to convert an initial, random distribution of particles on a surface into a desired pattern. The planner generates a sequence of motion commands for positioning the tip and pushing the particles. The commands are executed through software that compensates for thermal drift, creep and hysteresis. Experimental results show that the system can build in minutes a pattern that would take an experienced user several hours to construct interactively.