Experimental Study on the Creation of Nanodots with Combined-Dynamic Mode “Dip-Pen” Nanolithography

Abstract

The combined-dynamic mode DPN (CDDPN), rather than mostly used contact mode DPN or tapping mode DPN, becomes the important tool for the creation of nanodots with the direct-writing method of depositing the ink onto the substrate surface at the predetermined position. However, successful examples of using CDDPN to fabricate nanodots are relatively few, and the formation process and the size of nanodots are affected by various factors, such as humidity, substrate material, contact time and surface roughness. So the influences of various factors on nanodots are explored through the experimental method. The results are that the nanodots become larger with the increase of the relative humidity and the roughness of the surface, respectively; similarly, the nanodot is created easily on the soft surface with hydrophilicity in the longer contact time; in addition, for the better nanolithography quality of the nanodot, the nanolithography process, under the optimized influence parameters, is accomplished once without the intermediate scan imaging process as much as possible.

Keywords:

• Nanodots
• dip-pen nanolithography (DPN)
• combined-dynamic mode
• atomic force microscopy (AFM)