| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Nanometer-scale Science and Technology | Thursday Sessions |
| Session NS+NC-ThA |
| Session: | Nanolithography and Manipulation |
| Presenter: | W.K. Lee, Naval Research Laboratory |
| Authors: | W.K. Lee, Naval Research Laboratory W.P. King, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign L.J. Whitman, National Institute of Standards and Technology P.E. Sheehan, Naval Research Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Thermal dip-pen nanolithography (tDPN) uses a heated AFM cantilever coated with an ink to melt, deposit, and align the ink on a substrate.1 tDPN has proven particularly effective for depositing polymers.2,3 The polymer thickness and lateral dimensions may be tuned by adjusting the tip heating power and the writing speed to allow layer-by-layer deposition. The deposited polymer is aligned along the writing direction apparently due to shear between the tip and substrate. Many different functional polymers have been successfully deposited on silicon oxide surfaces, including a temperature-responsive polymer [poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), known as pNIPAAM], a semiconducting polymer [poly(3-dodecylthiophene)], a piezoelectric polymer [poly(vinylidene fluoride)], and a light-emitting polymer [poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)]. We will present our characterization of a deposited polymer. For example, pNIPAAM nanostructures by tDPN patterned in surface parallel form along the writing direction and undergo a hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic phase transition induced by temperature that allows the structures to controllably capture and release proteins.3 Moreover, we will demonstrate how a universal polymer carrier “ink” may be used to deposit a wide range of materials that could not be deposited under ordinary conditions. Finally, we will describe the deposition and nanostructuring of aromatic molecules which may not be accessible by other scanning probe lithographic techniques.
1 Sheehan et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 85, 1589 (2004).
2 Yang et al., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 128, 6774 (2006).
3 Lee et al., Soft Matters, accepted for publication (2008).