Surface patterning articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mask-free multi-photon lithography allows the straightforward fabrication of nanostructures, but high precision and good resolution can be challenging to achieve. Here, the authors report a combination of photo-inhibition and chemical quenchers for improved lithography performance.

    • Lingling Guan
    • , Chun Cao
    •  & Xu Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Area selective atomic layer deposition (AS-ALD) has been recently proposed as a controlled growth method, but the patterning resolution and selectivity require improvements. Here, the authors report a superlattice-based AS-ALD method to deposit various materials onto 2D MoS2-MoSe2 lateral superlattices, with a minimum half-pitch size of ~ 10 nm.

    • Jeongwon Park
    • , Seung Jae Kwak
    •  & Kibum Kang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interaction of flexoelectric polarization arising from strain gradients with ferroelectricity impacts tribological properties and facilitates fine physical lithography without masks or chemicals, with potential applications in various fields.

    • Seongwoo Cho
    • , Iaroslav Gaponenko
    •  & Seungbum Hong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manufacturing metallized arrays of 3D nanoarchitectures is generally limited by existing lithographic methods. Here, by manipulating applied electric and flow fields, authors demonstrate fast 3D nanoprinting of nanostructured arrays of multiple materials and geometries over millimetre-scale areas.

    • Bingyan Liu
    • , Shirong Liu
    •  & Jicheng Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Real-time monitoring of coatings erosive wear is critical to mitigate safety and financial concerns in many applications. Here, authors show a non-destructive inspection system with AI-enabled microwave resonators and a smart monitoring circuitry to identify and estimate wear depth and rate of eroded layers.

    • Vishal Balasubramanian
    • , Omid Niksan
    •  & Mohammad H. Zarifi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A challenge in making a flexible mold stamp using roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography is to increase area while minimizing perceptible seams. Here, based on Fourier spectral analysis of moiré patterns resulting from superposed identical patterns, a method that enables the fabrication of scalable, quasi-seamless functional surfaces without the use of alignment marks is proposed.

    • Woo Young Kim
    • , Bo Wook Seo
    •  & Young Tae Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In order to be used on a large scale, unclonable tags for anti-counterfeiting should allow mass production at low cost, as well as fast and easy authentication. Here, the authors show how to use one-step annealing of gold films to quickly realize robust tags with high capacity, allowing fast deep-learning based authentication via smartphone readout.

    • Ningfei Sun
    • , Ziyu Chen
    •  & Qian Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of two-photon lithography has been limited by the low writing speed. The authors reported a multi-focus improved lithography platform that employs up to 2000 laser foci to perform parallel fabrication with 90 nm resolution via optimised polymerisation and single-pulse printing strategy.

    • Wenqi Ouyang
    • , Xiayi Xu
    •  & Shih-Chi Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological edge states offer the prospect of dissipationless transport for nanoelectronics, but a precise method to spatially engineer such nanoscale conducting channels is still lacking. Here, the authors demonstrate patterning of topological boundary states in Sb2Te3 using a focused ion beam to create amorphous, topologically trivial regions.

    • Abdulhakim Bake
    • , Qi Zhang
    •  & David Cortie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Engineering quantum states requires precise manipulations at the atomic level. Here, the authors use deep reinforcement learning to manipulate Ag adatoms on Ag surfaces, which combined with path planning algorithms enables autonomous atomic assembly.

    • I-Ju Chen
    • , Markus Aapro
    •  & Adam S. Foster

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Focused-ion beam (FIB) lithography enables high-resolution nanopatterning of 2D materials, but usually introduces significant damage. Here, the authors report a FIB-based fabrication technique to obtain high quality graphene superlattices with 18-nm pitch, which exhibit electronic transport properties similar to those of natural moiré systems.

    • David Barcons Ruiz
    • , Hanan Herzig Sheinfux
    •  & Frank H. L. Koppens

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing and manufacturing eco/bioresorbable electronic systems remains a challenge. The authors introduce a picosecond-pulsed laser-based scheme that exploits controlled patterning, thinning, and/or cutting to manipulate multilayers of eco/bioresorbable materials for a wide range of advanced electronic systems.

    • Quansan Yang
    • , Ziying Hu
    •  & John A. Rogers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemically propelled micropumps are wireless fluid flow driving systems with many potential applications. Here, the authors report a self-driven reusable Nafion micropump fueled by different salt cations in a wide range of concentrations that triggers both radial and unidirectional flows, showing efficient water remediation capabilities.

    • María J. Esplandiu
    • , David Reguera
    •  & Jordi Fraxedas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring the interactions between liquids and solids is critical for improving control over fluidic systems. Here, authors develop an active way to tailor various polygonal shapes of non-wetting droplet on microtextured surfaces, resulting from the anisotropic energy barriers of the contact line.

    • Jing Lou
    • , Songlin Shi
    •  & Cunjing Lv

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Well-defined nanostructuring is a feasible concept to achieve nanostructured arrays with unique properties. Here the authors report fabrication of designable anodic aluminum oxide templates with controllable in-plane and out-of-plane shapes, sizes, spatial configurations, and pore combinations.

    • Rui Xu
    • , Zhiqiang Zeng
    •  & Yong Lei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Additive manufacturing methods at the macroscale have seen significant advances in recent times, but advances for the bottom-up formation of nanoscale polymeric features are yet to be realized. Here, the authors demonstrate that rapid crosslinking of an AFM delivered norbornene crosslinker in presence of a surface-tethered metathesis catalysts facilitates the curing of delivered material in an extremely rapid fashion

    • Thomas G. Pattison
    • , Shuo Wang
    •  & Greg G. Qiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nucleation control of self-assembled quantum dots is challenging. Here, the authors employ conventional molecular beam epitaxy to achieve wafer-scale density modulation of high-quality quantum dots with tunable periodicity on unpatterned substrates.

    • N. Bart
    • , C. Dangel
    •  & A. Ludwig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Focus-locking improves localization precision in single-molecule microscopy, but fiducials are often deposited at random and provide limited 3D compensation. Here, the authors fabricate 3D optical fiducials with nanometer accuracy by two-photon direct laser writing, and demonstrate isotropic 3D focus locking.

    • Simao Coelho
    • , Jongho Baek
    •  & Katharina Gaus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is a long-standing interest in the development of patterning process for porous materials. Here, the authors report a solvent-free bottom-up approach for the patterning of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks; well-resolved patterns with features down to the scale of 100 nm can be achieved.

    • Yurun Miao
    • , Dennis T. Lee
    •  & Michael Tsapatsis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite promising for anti-icing applications, structured superhydrophobic surfaces usually lose their hydrophobicity after a few icing/melting cycles. Here, authors investigate specific structured surfaces and air bubbles on frozen ice droplets to propose three criteria to enable dewetting transitions.

    • Lizhong Wang
    • , Ze Tian
    •  & Minlin Zhong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron beam lithography (EBL) is renowned to provide fabrication resolution in the deep nanometer scale but their incapability of arbitrary 3D nanofabrication poses a major limitation to the technique. Here, the authors demonstrate a manufacturing technique of functional 3d nanostructures at a resolution of sub-15 nm using voltage-regulated 3d EBL.

    • Nan Qin
    • , Zhi-Gang Qian
    •  & Tiger H. Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Precise patterning of functional nanoparticles can provide a powerful tool for next-generation macroscale devices. Here, the authors report a reliable nanoprinting technique that can pattern various functional nanoparticles on the substrate with a 200 nm pitch and 10 nm position accuracy, and above the millimeter scale.

    • Xing Xing
    • , Zaiqin Man
    •  & Zhenda Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Directing the position, orientation, and long-range lateral order of block copolymer domains to produce technologically-useful, sublithographic patterns is a challenge. Here, the authors present a promising approach to overcome the challenge by directing assembly using spatial boundaries between planar, low-resolution regions on a surface with different composition.

    • Robert M. Jacobberger
    • , Vikram Thapar
    •  & Michael S. Arnold

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Creating micro/nanostructures on fibers is beneficial to many fiber-based devices, which remains a challenge in large-scale fabrication due to elongation and reflow. Here, the authors demonstrate a method for generating high-resolution, arbitrarily designed surface patterns on fiber during the thermal drawing process.

    • Zhe Wang
    • , Tingting Wu
    •  & Lei Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bipolar conductivity is fundamental for electronic devices based on two-dimensional semiconductors. Here, the authors report on-demand p- and n-doping of monolayer MoS2 via defects engineering using thermochemical scanning probe lithography, and achieve a p-n junction with rectification ratio over 104.

    • Xiaorui Zheng
    • , Annalisa Calò
    •  & Elisa Riedo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current metalenses are far from commercialization due to fabrication cost and low throughput. Here, the authors use a UV-curable resin as a matrix for direct pattern replication by the composite and TiO2 nanoparticles to increase the refractive index of the composite, allowing dielectric metalenses to be manufactured in a single step.

    • Gwanho Yoon
    • , Kwan Kim
    •  & Junsuk Rho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photolithography is an established microfabrication technique but commonly uses costly shortwavelength light sources to achieve high resolution. Here the authors use metal patterns embedded in a flexible elastomer photomask with mechanical robustness for generation of subdiffraction patterns as a cost effective near-field optical printing approach.

    • Sangyoon Paik
    • , Gwangmook Kim
    •  & Wooyoung Shim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In homoepitaxial crystal growth, four established modes describe atom deposition on a single crystal surface. Here the authors present a model that shows that, for each adatom growth mode, there exists an analogous but inverse version for vacancy growth. This also applies to combined growth.

    • Marcel J. Rost
    • , Leon Jacobse
    •  & Marc T. M. Koper

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Confidently separating the photothermal effect from the generation of energetic charge carriers and quantifying their relative contribution to chemical reactions remain a great challenge in plasmon-mediated chemical reactions. Here, authors describe a strategy based on the construction of a plasmonic electrode coupled with photoelectrochemistry to quantitatively disentangle these two effects.

    • Chao Zhan
    • , Bo-Wen Liu
    •  & Zhong-Qun Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fabrication of wafer-scale nanogratings for X-ray spectroscopy is difficult especially for very high line densities. The authors use vacancy epitaxy to fabricate sub-50-nm-periodicity gratings, coated with multilayers for efficient operation, for use in ultra-high resolution x-ray spectroscopy.

    • Qiushi Huang
    • , Qi jia
    •  & Xin Ou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integration of emitters for nanophotonic applications requires precise control over their position and orientation. Here, Hail et al. demonstrate the positioning of a single and a small number of oriented molecules with subwavelength accuracy bu direct non-contact electrohydrodynamic nanoprinting.

    • Claudio U. Hail
    • , Christian Höller
    •  & Hadi Eghlidi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bringing atomic beam technology to the chip scale is challenging due to the long distance required to filter the velocity distribution. Here, the authors report an engineering strategy for on-chip filtering of the velocity profile of atomic beams by fabricating planar, etched microchannel arrays.

    • Chao Li
    • , Xiao Chai
    •  & C. Raman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Superhydrophobic surfaces are expected to increase streaming potential, but are hindered by the presence of air. Here the authors enhance streaming potential by flowing high-dielectric salt water over liquid-filled surfaces infiltrated with low-dielectric liquid, harnessing electric slip and surface charge.

    • B. Fan
    • , A. Bhattacharya
    •  & P. R. Bandaru

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulation at the atomic scale comes with a trade-off between simplicity and thermal stability. Here, Achal et al. demonstrate improved automated hydrogen lithography and repassivation, enabling error-corrected atomic writing of large-scale structures/memories that are stable at room temperature.

    • Roshan Achal
    • , Mohammad Rashidi
    •  & Robert A. Wolkow

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Materials with switchable fluorescence possess great potential for information encryption applications, but systems where the off state is invisible are lacking. Here the authors print patterns of colourless metal organic frameworks and reversibly transform these inks into fluorescent perovskite nanocrystals

    • Congyang Zhang
    • , Bo Wang
    •  & Liang Li

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