3D nanofabrication of fluidic components by corner lithography.

A reproducible wafer-scale method to obtain 3D nanostructures is investigated. This method, called corner lithography, explores the conformal deposition and the subsequent timed isotropic etching of a thin film in a 3D shaped silicon template. The technique leaves a residue of the thin film in sharp concave corners which can be used as structural material or as an inversion mask in subsequent steps.

Capillary negative pressure measured by nanochannel collapse.

A new method is presented to measure capillarity-induced negative pressure. Negative pressures of several bars have been measured for five different liquids (ethanol, acetone, cyclohexane, aniline, and water) over a range of surface tension. Capillary negative pressure was measured in 79 +/- 3 nm silica nanochannels on the basis of the determination of the critical channel width for elastocapillary collapse of the flexible plate covering the channels.

Nanoimprint lithography for nanophotonics in silicon.

A novel inverse imprinting procedure for nanolithography is presented which offers a transfer accuracy and feature definition that is comparable to state-of-the-art nanofabrication techniques. We illustrate the fabrication quality of a demanding nanophotonic structure: a photonic crystal waveguide. Local examination using photon scanning tunneling microscopy (PSTM) shows that the resulting nanophotonic structures have excellent guiding properties at wavelengths in the telecommunications range, which indicates a high quality of the local structure and the overall periodicity.

Periodic arrays of deep nanopores made in silicon with reactive ion etching and deep UV lithography.

We report on the fabrication of periodic arrays of deep nanopores with high aspect ratios in crystalline silicon. The radii and pitches of the pores were defined in a chromium mask by means of deep UV scan and step technology. The pores were etched with a reactive ion etching process with SF(6), optimized for the formation of deep nanopores.