Robust functionalization of amorphous cadmium sulfide films using z-lift amplitude modulated atomic force microscopy-assisted electrostatic nanolithography

摘要

A robust technique, based on vertical (z-lift) manipulation of a negatively biased oscillating atomic force microscope cantilever, is developed which creates raised columnar nanostructures with high aspect ratios (up to 40 nm high/150 nm wide) on amorphous CdS thin films. The nanostructures' height (8-40 nm) is proportional to z-lift of the tip and correlates with CdS film thickness. An in-house modified electric force microscopy is used to record the associated surface charge distribution which is found to be opposite to that of the tip.