(348b) A New "Cutting Edge" Technology for the Fabrication of 1D Nanostructures

Highly ordered periodic surface structures with nano- to sub-micron feature sizes are highly desirable in electronic, photonic, nanofluidic and biological applications. Conventional nanofabrication methods, such as photolithography and scanning-beam lithography, require high capital cost facilities, and are restricted to limited selection of materials. Besides, most of the existing nanofabrication methods are also challenged by long-range, large-scale applications. Herein we introduce a new non-lithographic method, which is able to create uniform nanopatterns on a variety of plastic and metal surfaces over a large scale. This technique was achieved by a simple and uniquely designed vibration cutting. During such a cutting process, wavy patterns ranging from 30nm to more than 1 micron could be easily produced. The size of patterns can be easily tuned by controlling the cutting speed and vibration frequency. Further, if the cutting conditions are properly controlled, millimeter-long nanowires with tunable sizes could also be produced in one step. This method was demonstrated on various materials, such as acrylic, epoxy polymers and metals (aluminum, copper). This simple, robust, and clean ?cutting-edge? technology allows us to produce long-range ordered patterns and 1D nanostructures in a most cost effective way, which holds great promise for future application.