Fabricating arrays of metallic nanostructures
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsPhilip Kuekes, M. Islam, Shih-Yuan Wang, Alexandre Bratkovski
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Abstract
A patterned array of metallic nanostructures and fabrication thereof is described. A plurality of nanowires is grown on a substrate, the plurality of nanowires being laterally arranged on the substrate in a predetermined array pattern. The plurality of nanowires is coated with a metal to generate a plurality of metal-coated nanowires. Vacancies between the metal-coated nanowires are filled in with a sacrificial material for stabilization, and the metal-coated nanowires are planarized. The sacrificial material is removed, the patterned array of metallic nanostructures being formed by the plurality of planarized metal-coated nanowires.
Claims38
A method for fabricating a patterned array of metallic nanostructures, comprising:
- growing a plurality of nanowires on a substrate, said plurality of nanowires being laterally arranged on said substrate in a predetermined array pattern;
- coating said plurality of nanowires with a metal to generate a plurality of metal-coated nanowires having vacancies therebetween;
- stabilizing said metal-coated nanowires by filling in said vacancies with a sacrificial material;
- planarizing said stabilized metal-coated nanowires;
- and
- removing said sacrificial material, said patterned array of metallic nanostructures being formed by said plurality of planarized metal-coated nanowires.
A device comprising a patterned array of metallic columns vertically extending from a substrate, each metallic column being formed by metallically coating one of an array of non-metallic nanowires catalytically grown from the substrate upon a predetermined lateral pattern of seed points placed thereon according to a nanoimprinting process.
A method for fabricating a composite material comprising a uniform array of tubular conductors arranged in a predetermined periodic pattern, comprising:
- obtaining a uniform plurality of nanowires vertically extending from a substrate and laterally positioned thereon in the predetermined periodic pattern, each nanowire comprising a circumferentially exposed side surface and a top surface;
- coating said side and top surfaces of said nanowires with a conductive material;
- processing said coated nanowires to remove said conductive material from said top surfaces and to have a uniform height to form the uniform array of tubular conductors;
- wherein said uniform array of tubular conductors is configured and dimensioned to have at least one of a negative effective permittivity and a negative effective permeability for incident radiation of at least one operating wavelength λ.
An apparatus for fabricating a patterned array of metallic nanostructures, comprising:
- means for placing a plurality of catalyst islands on a substrate using a nanoimprint process, said catalyst islands being laterally arranged on said substrate in a predetermined array pattern;
- means for catalytically growing a respective plurality of nanowires extending vertically above said substrate from said catalyst islands;
- means for coating said plurality of nanowires with a metal to generate a plurality of metal-coated nanowires having vacancies therebetween;
- means for filling in said vacancies with a sacrificial material for mechanically stabilizing said metal-coated nanowires;
- means for planarizing said mechanically stabilized metal-coated nanowires;
- and
- means for removing said sacrificial material;
- whereby said patterned array of metallic nanostructures is formed by said plurality of planarized metal-coated nanowires.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.