Manipulating liquid metal flow for creating standalone structures with micro-and nano-scale features in a single step

Shastri, V and Talukder, S and Roy, K and Kumar, P and Pratap, R (2022) Manipulating liquid metal flow for creating standalone structures with micro-and nano-scale features in a single step. In: Nanotechnology, 33 (45).

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Abstract

Standalone structures with periodic surface undulations or ripples can be spontaneously created upon flowing a liquid metal, e.g. Ga, over a metallic film, e.g. Pt, Au, etc, through a complex ‘wetting-reaction’-driven process. Due to the ability of 3-dimensional patterning at the small length scale in a single step, the liquid metal ‘ripple’ flow is a promising non-conventional patterning technique. Herein, we examine the effect of a few process parameters, such as distance away from the liquid reservoir, size of the liquid reservoir, and the geometry, thickness, and width of substrate metal film, on the nature of the ripple flow to produce finer patterns with feature sizes of ≤ 2 μm. The height and the pitch of the pattern decrease with distance from the liquid reservoir and decrease in the reservoir volume. Furthermore, a decrease in the thickness and width of the substrate film also leads to a decrease in the height and pitch of the ripples. Finally, the application of an external electric field also controls the ripple patterns. By optimizing various parameters, standalone ripple structures of Ga with the height and pitch of ≤ 500 nm are created. As potential applications, the ripple patterns with micro-and nano-scopic features are demonstrated to produce a diffraction grating and a die for micro-stamping.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Nanotechnology
Publisher:	Institute of Physics
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Institute of Physics.
Keywords:	Chemical reactions; Diffraction; Electric fields; Liquid metals; Metallic films; Metals; Nanotechnology; Wetting, Liquid reservoirs; Liquid-metal flows; Nano scale; NanoPatterning; Periodic surfaces; Ripple patterns; Ripple structure; Single-step; Wetting reaction; �wetting-reaction�-driven flow, Diffraction gratings
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy) Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences > Centre for Nano Science and Engineering
Date Deposited:	05 Oct 2022 04:42
Last Modified:	05 Oct 2022 04:42
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/77013

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