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Nanostructured surfaces from size-selected clusters

Nature Materials volume 2, pages 443–448 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

The deposition of ionized beams of size-selected atomic clusters onto well-defined substrates represents a new method of preparing nanostructured surfaces, with lateral feature sizes in the range 1–10 nm. 'Pinning' of the incident clusters prevents the diffusion of the clusters on the surface, and thus preserves the gas-phase cluster size, even at room temperature and above. At the same time, advances in diblock copolymer techniques allow the preparation of ordered two-dimensional arrays of clusters. Here we discuss the creation and applications of these nanostructured surfaces, ranging from the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures to the immobilization of protein molecules.

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Figure 1: Deposition of size-selected Ag clusters on graphite.
Figure 2: Cluster pinning by pre-fabricated defects.
Figure 3: Protein immobilization by pinned Au cluster arrays.
Figure 4: Ordered arrays of nanoparticles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanoscale Physics Research Laboratory, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    R. E. Palmer & S. Pratontep

  2. Abteilung Festkörperphysik, Universität Ulm, Ulm, D-89069, Germany

    H. -G. Boyen

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  1. R. E. Palmer
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  2. S. Pratontep
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  3. H. -G. Boyen
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Correspondence to R. E. Palmer.

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Palmer, R., Pratontep, S. & Boyen, HG. Nanostructured surfaces from size-selected clusters. Nature Mater 2, 443–448 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat897

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