Self-assembly and Nanosphere Lithography

We have been employing self-assembly of monodispersed polystyrene nanospheres to form a template for depositing patterened metal structures. Following are the steps: (a) assemble a close packing of polystyrene nanospheres on a substrate by self-assembly and modify it by reactive ion etching; (b) deposit metal films on top of it; (c) and (d) gradually washing away the polystyrene nanospheres. It is a cheap and cheerful method of producing nanoscale metallic arrays over a large area.

PL WU, L PENG, X TUO, XG WANG, AND J YUAN

Control of Deposition Channels in Nanosphere Templates for High-density Nanodot Array Production
Nanotechnology, 2005, 16, 1693-1696 (2005).