Patterning aluminum thin films by water-mediated nano-transfer printing

Abstract

We report a new nano-transfer printing (nTP) method that uses a water-mediated transfer process. Water-mediated nTP is based on the direct transfer of a metal thin film from a stamp to a substrate via water-mediated surface bonding between the stamp and the substrate. This procedure can generate aluminum (Al) patterns with micrometer and nanometer-scale feature sizes. Furthermore, an array of Al nanochannels is fabricated by using this method. The transferred Al patterns chemically bound to the substrate surface and thus exhibit strong adhesion.