Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Novel fabrication of extremely high aspect ratio and straight nanogap and array nanogap electrodes

  • Technical Paper
  • Published:
Microsystem Technologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We reported a reproducible, simple and novel method for fabricating electrodes with high aspect ratio and highly straight nanometer size gap. The gap size could be controlled in a wide range between several nm up to several hundreds of nm, although in this work our individual gap size was 172 nm. In this method a single nanofiber was aligned as a sacrificial structure using a secondary electrical field and its diameter lowered through thermal treatment to obtain smallest gap size. Then, after deposition of blanket metal, nanofiber was removed obtaining nano scale gap. We predict the application of these simple fabricated gaps for diverse fields. The expensive, time consuming, none-reproducible and low accuracy fabrication methods can supersede by this cost effective, facile and fast method. It can provide mass production for precisely positioned nanoscale gaps, ignoring electrode and substrate materials. The electrodes hold the advantage of maximum straightness comparing to other similar nano fabrication methods. Fabricated gaps have large aspect ratio (in the order of 106). Also array gaps with average gap size of 400 nm were fabricated. Same size gaps could be fabricated in a row by this method. Different parameters in alignment were taken into account and studied. The process shows great potential for facile and batch fabrication of parallel submicron gaps for diverse applications including gas sensing, bio-sensing and nanofluidic systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Balakrishnan SR, Hashim U, Letchumanan GR, Kashif M, Ruslinda AR, Liu W, Poopalan P (2014) Development of highly sensitive polysilicon nanogap with APTES/GOx based lab-on-chip biosensor to determine low levels of salivary glucose. Sens Actuators A 220:101–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balakrishnan SR, Hashim U, Gopinath SC, Poopalan P, Ramayya HR, Veeradasan P, Ruslinda AR (2016) Polysilicon nanogap lab-on-chip facilitates multiplex analyses with single analyte. Biosens Bioelectron 84:44–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbosa AI, Gehlot P, Sidapra K, Edwards AD, Reis NM (2015) Portable smartphone quantitation of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in a fluoropolymer microfluidic device. Biosens Bioelectron 70:5–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burger C, Hsiao BS, Chu B (2006) Nanofibrous materials and their applications. Annu Rev Mater Res 36:333–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chaurey V, Chiang PC, Polanco C, Su YH, Chou CF, Swami NS (2010) Interplay of electrical forces for alignment of sub-100 nm electrospun nanofibers on insulator gap collectors. Langmuir 26(24):19022–19026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danhel A, Mansfeldova V, Janda P, Vyskocil V, Barek J (2011) Crystallic silver amalgam—a novel electrode material. Analyst 136:3656–3662

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fardindoost S, Rahimi F, Ghasempour R (2010) Pd doped WO3 films prepared by sol–gel process for hydrogen sensing. Int J Hydrogen Energy 35(2):854–860

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gómez-Pastora J, Xue X, Karampelas IH, Bringas E, Furlani EP, Ortiz I (2017) Analysis of separators for magnetic beads recovery: from large systems to multifunctional microdevices. Sep Purif Technol 172:16–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hájková A, Vyskočil V, Josypčuk B, Barek J (2016) A miniaturized electrode system for voltammetric determination of electrochemically reducible environmental pollutants. Sens Actuators B Chem 227:263–270

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huck C, Neubrech F, Vogt J, Toma A, Gerbert D, Katzmann J, Pucci A (2014) Surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy using nanometer-sized gaps. ACS Nano 8(5):4908–4914

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jang B, Cho S, Park C, Lee H, Song MJ, Lee W (2015) Palladium nanogap-based H2 sensors on a patterned elastomeric substrate using nanoimprint lithography. Sens Actuators B Chem 221:593–598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jang B, Kim W, Song MJ, Lee W (2017) Thermal stability of the sensing properties in H2 sensors composed of Pd nanogaps on an elastomeric substrate. Sens Actuators B Chem 240:186–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jeon HJ, Lee EH, Yoo HW, Kim KH, Jung HT (2014) Fabrication of sub-20 nm nano-gap structures through the elastomeric nano-stamp assisted secondary sputtering phenomenon. Nanoscale 6(11):5953–5959

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim W, Jang B, Lee HS, Lee W (2016) Reliability and selectivity of H2 sensors composed of Pd film nanogaps on an elastomeric substrate. Sens Actuators B Chem 224:547–551

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim DS, Jeong YJ, Lee BK, Shanmugasundaram A, Lee DW (2017) Piezoresistive sensor-integrated PDMS cantilever: a new class of device for measuring the drug-induced changes in the mechanical activity of cardiomyocytes. Sensors Actuators B Chem 240:566–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lam B, Zhou W, Kelley SO, Sargent EH (2015) Programmable definition of nanogap electronic devices using self-inhibited reagent depletion. Nat Commun 6:6940

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre J, Radosavljević M, Johnson AT (2000) Fabrication of nanometer size gaps in a metallic wire. Appl Phys Lett 76(25):3828–3830

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leroy J, Crunteanu A, Bessaudou A, Cosset F, Champeaux C, Orlianges JC (2012) High-speed metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide films induced by an electrical pulsed voltage over nano-gap electrodes. Appl Phys Lett 100(21):213507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Libansky M, Zima J, Barek J, Dejmkova H (2014) Construction of an electrochemical cell system based on carbon composite film electrodes and its application for voltammetric determination of triclosan. Electroanalysis 26:1920–1927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim DK, Jeon KS, Kim HM, Nam JM, Suh YD (2010) Nanogap-engineerable Raman-active nanodumbbells for single-molecule detection. Nat Mater 9(1):60–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu J, Wang L, Ouyang W, Wang W, Qin J, Xu Z, Wang L (2015) Fabrication of PMMA nanofluidic electrochemical chips with integrated microelectrodes. Biosens Bioelectron 72:288–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikfarjam A, Hosseini S, Salehifar N (2017) Fabrication of a highly sensitive single aligned TiO2 and gold nanoparticle embedded TiO2 nano-fiber gas sensor. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 9(18):15662–15671

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pile DFP, Ogawa T, Gramotnev DK, Matsuzaki Y, Vernon KC, Yamaguch K, Okamoto T, Haraguchi M, Fukui M (2005) Theoretical and experimental investigation of strongly localized plasmons on triangular metal wedges for subwavelength waveguiding. Appl Phys Lett 87:261114/1–261114/3

    Google Scholar 

  • Pujol-Vila F, Giménez-Gómez P, Santamaria N, Antúnez B, Vigués N, Díaz-González M, Muñoz-Berbel X (2016) Portable and miniaturized optofluidic analysis system with ambient light correction for fast in situ determination of environmental pollution. Sens Actuators B Chem 222:55–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh S, Kondekar PN, Jaiswal NK (2016) Label-free biosensor using nanogap embedded dielectric modulated Schottky tunneling source impact ionization MOS. Microelectron Eng 149:129–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skalová V, Gonçalves LM, Navrátil T, Barek J, Rodrigues JA, Vyskočil V (2017) Miniaturized voltammetric cell for cathodic voltammetry making use of an agar membrane. J Electroanal Chem. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelechem.2017.12.073

    Google Scholar 

  • Song H, Reed MA, Lee T (2011) Single molecule electronic devices. Adv Mater 23(14):1583–1608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsutsui K, Nakata M, Morita M, Tokuda M, Nagatsuma K, Onozato H, Wada Y (2007) Novel fabrication technologies of planar nano-gap electrodes for single molecule evaluation. Curr Appl Phys 7(4):329–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tvrdikova J, Danhel A, Barek J, Vyskocil V (2012) Voltammetric and amperometric determination of selected dinitronaphthalenes using single crystal silver amalgam based sensors. Electrochim Acta 56:23–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Megen MJJ, Bomer JG, Olthuis W, Van Den Berg A (2014) Solid state nanogaps for electrochemical detection fabricated using edge lithography. Microelectron Eng 115:21–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villarroya M, Barniol N, Martin C, Pérez-Murano F, Esteve J, Bruchhaus L, Gierak J (2007) Fabrication of nanogaps for MEMS prototyping using focused ion beam as a lithographic tool and reactive ion etching pattern transfer. Microelectron Eng 84(5):1215–1218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wasilewski T, Gębicki J, Kamysz W (2017) Bioelectronic nose: current status and perspectives. Biosens Bioelectron 87:480–494

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams R, Wienroth M (2014) Identity, mass fatality and forensic genetics. New Genet Soc 33(3):257–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu Y, Hong W, Akiyama T, Gautsch S, Kolivoska V, Wandlowski T, de Rooij NF (2013) Batch fabrication of gold–gold nanogaps by E-beam lithography and electrochemical deposition. Nanotechnology 24(23):235302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiong Y, Tan J, Wang C, Zhu Y, Fang S, Wang Q, Duan M (2016) A miniaturized oxygen sensor integrated on fiber surface based on evanescent-wave induced fluorescence quenching. J Lumin 179:581–587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yi M, Jeong KH, Lee LP (2005) Theoretical and experimental study towards a nanogap dielectric biosensor. Biosens Bioelectron 20(7):1320–1326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang B, Zhang M, Song K, Li Q, Cui T (2013) Shrink induced nanostructures for energy conversion efficiency enhancement in photovoltaic devices. Appl Phys Lett 103(2):023104

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MEMS&NEMS Laboratory, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, P.O. Box 14395-1561, Iran

    Mir Mehdi Hashemi, Alireza Nikfarjam & Hasan Raji

Authors
  1. Mir Mehdi Hashemi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alireza Nikfarjam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hasan Raji
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alireza Nikfarjam.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hashemi, M.M., Nikfarjam, A. & Raji, H. Novel fabrication of extremely high aspect ratio and straight nanogap and array nanogap electrodes. Microsyst Technol 25, 541–549 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-3993-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-3993-0

Search

Navigation