Contact printing with nanometer resolution

Developed a purely additive contact printing technique that can, in a single step, form complex patterns of functional materials with nanometer resolution. This method can print directly nanostructures without the use of sacrificial resists, etching procedures or post-patterning deposition steps that are often required with other nanolithographic techniques. It is operationally simple, compatible with a wide range of materials (metals, dielectrics, etc.) and substrates (rigid inorganics, flexible plastics, etc.) and capable of patterning large areas under ambient conditions. The method, which we refer to as nanotransfer printing (nTP), involves the controlled transfer of material from the raised regions of reusable stamps onto the surfaces of substrates. Pattern transfer is driven by interfacial chemical and physical reactions that are initiated when the substrate and the stamp are brought into contact. We demonstrate the versatility of nTP by printing nanometer and micron scale metal patterns in the geometries of 2D photonic waveguides and electrostatic lenses and by building two functional devices on flexible substrates: high performance organic thin film transistors (TFTs) and thin film inorganic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors.