Low-ion-dose FIB modification of monomicellar layers for the creation of highly ordered metal nanodot arrays

Low-dose FIB irradiation is a successful method for the formation of laterally resolved micro- and nanopatterns in combination with a metal salt loaded micellar monofilm as a direct deposition resist. It provides a new concept to obtain the combination of two different functional elements including the metal and metal oxide identities generated from the resist and the grating induced in the substrate. The beam locally crosslinks and pins the micelles onto the substrate without compromising their structural integrity, so that, after plasma treatment, hexagonally ordered gold dots result on the surface. The simultaneous creation of an optically functional grating decorated by gold nanodots gives an advantage of making the nanodot patterns easy to detect by conventional light microscopy. Furthermore, surfaces with precisely controlled peptide densities can also be created by functionalizing nanodots fabricated with the micellar approach.