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Use of Thin Sectioning (Nanoskiving) to Fabricate Nanostructures for Electronic and Optical Applications
Author(s) -
Lipomi Darren J.,
Martinez Ramses V.,
Whitesides George M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201101024
Subject(s) - materials science , nanolithography , nanotechnology , epoxy , nanostructure , substrate (aquarium) , plasmon , thin film , nanowire , semiconductor , optoelectronics , fabrication , composite material , medicine , oceanography , alternative medicine , pathology , geology
This Review discusses nanoskiving—a simple and inexpensive method of nanofabrication, which minimizes requirements for access to cleanrooms and associated facilities, and which makes it possible to fabricate nanostructures from materials, and of geometries, to which more familiar methods of nanofabrication are not applicable. Nanoskiving requires three steps: 1) deposition of a metallic, semiconducting, ceramic, or polymeric thin film onto an epoxy substrate; 2) embedding this film in epoxy, to form an epoxy block, with the film as an inclusion; and 3) sectioning the epoxy block into slabs with an ultramicrotome. These slabs, which can be 30 nm–10 μm thick, contain nanostructures whose lateral dimensions are equal to the thicknesses of the embedded thin films. Electronic applications of structures produced by this method include nanoelectrodes for electrochemistry, chemoresistive nanowires, and heterostructures of organic semiconductors. Optical applications include surface plasmon resonators, plasmonic waveguides, and frequency‐selective surfaces.