Fabrication of nanometer scale patterns within self-assembled monolayers by nanografting

A nanofabrication method, nanografting, has been developed to fabricate nan ometer scale patterns on surfaces with specified size and geometry. The nan ografting process combines the displacement of selected resist molecules by an atomic force microscopy tip and the adsorption of new adsorbate. The pr esent work details the procedure for nanografting and discusses various kin ds of patterns produced and the stability of the resulting patterns. Compar ed with other methods for microfabrication, nanografting allows a more prec ise control over the size and geometry of patterned features and their loca tions on surfaces. Nanopatterns comprising various thiol-based components c an be produced, where we have demonstrated the fabrication of nanopatterns from thiols with either the same or different chain lengths and terminal gr oups from the matrix SAM. Furthermore, nanografting allows the fabricated p atterns to be altered in situ without the need to change masks or repeat en tire fabrication processes. The patterned SAMs produced by nanografting ope n new opportunities for systematic studies of such size-dependent propertie s as conductivity, nanotribology, and spatially-confined surface reactions.