Email Print Share
September 25, 2006

Nanotransfer Printed L-shaped Beams

Nanotransfer Printed L-shaped Beams

Scanning electron micrograph of nanotransfer-printed, L-shaped, 3 Dimensional beams made of gold layers, 20 nanometers thick, on Si wafers.

Nanotransfer printing (nTP) represents an effective approach for generating 2 and 3 Dimension structures with feature sizes between tens of nanometers and tens of microns over areas several square millimeters. This technique uses elastomeric poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamps with high-resolution relief features to print thin, solid layer of "inks" onto the surface of other substrates. When the adhesion between the "ink" layers and the surface of a substrate is stronger than the interaction between the PDMS stamps and the "ink" layers, the "inks" are transferred onto the substrates. This approach provides a versatile, convenient and cost-effective means to form nanostructures on various surfaces, including flat planes, curved walls and over large areas. [For details about this and related research, see J. Zaumseil, M. A. Meitl, J. W. P. Hsu, B. R. Acharya, K. W. Baldwin, Y. L. Loo and J. A. Rogers, Nano Lett. 3, 1223 (2003) and E. Menard, L. Bilhaut, J. Zaumseil and J. A. Rogers, Langmuir 20, 6871 (2004).] (Date of Image: 2004)

Credit: Dr. John A. Rogers, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These images are modified with permission of the American Chemical Society.


Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (1.1 MB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.