Realizing high aspect ratio silver micro and nanostructures by microcontact printing of alkyl thiol self-assembled monol
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MRS Advances © 2019 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2019.237
Realizing high aspect ratio silver micro and nanostructures by microcontact printing of alkyl thiol self-assembled monolayers Amare Benor1,2,* Asman Tamang3, Veit Wagner3, Alberto Salleo4and Dietmar Knipp3,4,* 1
Department of Physics, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
2
Department of Physics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
3
Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany
4
Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
*Corresponding authors:[email protected] and [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The patterning of gold and silver micro and nanostructures on rigid and flexible substrates is investigated by microcontact printed thiol based self-assembled monolayers. The aspect ratio of the noble metal micro and nanostructures is determined by interaction of the -SH head group of the CH3(CH2)19SH molecules and the surface of the noble metal. Silver micro and nanostructures with >10 times higher aspect ratios can be realized in comparison to commonly realized gold micro and nanostructures. The printing process is described, and the etching process is characterized in terms of etching window and etching selectivity. Potential electronic and photonic applications of the micro and nanostructures are discussed taking the boundary conditions of the printing process and the selected material system into consideration.
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INTRODUCTION Micro/nano structuring is a key issue in realizing electronic and photonic devices. Of the many patterning methods, microcontact printing (PCP) has become one of the instrumental methods in patterning micro- and nanostructures. The method allows for patterning of micro- and nanostructures on flexible and rigid substrates. The most popular microcontact printing approach is based on using an alkyl thiolself-assembled monolayers (SAMs) as etch mask or resist. The approach was introduced by Whitesides and co-workers, who used microcontact printing to pattern gold films [ 1]. In their study, the metal film was patterned by a ferri/ferrocyanide etching solution after printing a hexadecanethiol (HDT, CH4(CH2)15SH) SAMs onto the gold film. The schematic sketch of eicosanethiol (ECT) based self-assembled monolayers on a metal surface is shown in Figure 1. The patterned SAMs cause a physicochemical modification of the silver and gold surface. The surface properties of the material are controlled independently from the bulk properties. The presence of the long radical chains allows for the use of SAMs as etch resist. The end group of the molecules acts as protection layer to withstand the etching solutions. The major advantage of using thiol SAMs as etch resist is that the method can be ap
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