Palmer R E, Pratontep S, Boyen H-G
Nanoscale Physics Research Laboratory, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Nat Mater. 2003 Jul;2(7):443-8. doi: 10.1038/nmat897.
The deposition of ionized beams of size-selected atomic clusters onto well-defined substrates represents a new method of preparing nanostructured surfaces, with lateral feature sizes in the range 1-10 nm. 'Pinning' of the incident clusters prevents the diffusion of the clusters on the surface, and thus preserves the gas-phase cluster size, even at room temperature and above. At the same time, advances in diblock copolymer techniques allow the preparation of ordered two-dimensional arrays of clusters. Here we discuss the creation and applications of these nanostructured surfaces, ranging from the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures to the immobilization of protein molecules.
