Steven wrote:
| Do we currently possess appropriate technology that could, for example,
allow us to cut grooves
| and valleys in the target surface material on an appropriate
nano-scale? I realize nano-scale means
| working with structures as small as at the atomic scale.
FYI (pardon my interjecting):
You may be interested in looking up, “Nanoimprint Lithography”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoimprint_lithography
Photolithography (using Light/Photons) has severe limitations when reaching the
nanoscale. E-Beam
Lithography has High Resolution but very low Throughput, not to mention cost.
Typically, a “master”
would be made using e-Beam and transferred to an appropriate material for
nanoimprinting...
... Combining Nanoimprint Lithography with Ion Etching/Milling (and perhaps
Sputtering), etc., could
allow one to achieve the desired Nanoscale Structures. Whether Nanoscale
Surface Structures are
needed is another question that needs addressing, but I believe Nanoimprinting
(although not as
cheap as we’d all like, right now!) would be a good way to proceed.
... One may also get by with simple nanoindentation if large
patterning/replication isn’t necessary.
Verification/Testing could be done by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and
possibly Contact AFM
(c-AFM).
- Mark Jurich
