Fabrication of nano-structured materials and their applications

Advances in fabrication of nanostructured materials offer the promise of new multifunctional systems. By manipulating structure and properties on the nanometer scale, an extensive range of structural and functional applications become available. Nanostructured materials can achieve alternate functions (i.e., antireflection), in addition to nanoscale manipulations of other entities (e.g., cell attachment platforms, or biosensors). In this work, the fabrication of nanostructured arrays has been studied and their utility in a number of applications has been demonstrated. A combination of methods: block copolymer micelle lithography (BCML), reactive ion etching (RIE), and particle enlargement techniques was employed on diverse substrates resulted in a vast variety of nanopillar profiles. These nanopillar arrays were then used as cell-attachment surfaces and as antireflective surfaces. Nanopore arrays were developed using a combination of colloidal lithography (CL), thin film deposition, and RIE. The applications studied for which the deep nanopore arrays may be used include electrochemical biosensors and bioassays. In addition, the feasibility of using a porous silicon photonic crystal to provide an optical reflection for a display was also investigated.