AFM patterning

The AFM nanorubbing can be easily overwritten by performing a subsequent scan in a different direction, as shown in Fig. 7.10. This behaviour is well known in normal cloth rubbing, where the entire surface is affected by the rubbing process. Surprisingly, such overwrite behaviour was also observed for AFM patterned ITO surfaces [34]. 

Fig. 7.9. Tapping mode images of 80 nm polyimide films, rubbed using AFM. (a) scan force 0.2 x 10 N. (b) scan force 0.8x10 N. (c) scan force 1.5 x 10 N. Optical micrograph of twisted nematic cells, formed by AFM patterned substrate.

Whereas XRD patterns of the thin crystalline films provide information on the orientation and lattice distances perpendicular to the substrate, AFM has proven to be a powerful technique for obtaining structural information of thin-lilm surfaces of conjugated materials 195 j. AFM imaging of the surface of a thin (10 nm) annealed film of Ooct-OFV5 confirmed the domain structure of the annealed Ooct-... 

Lead nitrate complexed with EDTA and lead perchlorate and sodium sulphide have been used for PbS ECALE-deposition.158159 The films were cubic and highly (200) oriented, and AFM images showed the same cubic structure.158159 PbSe films were also cubic, and the band gap of a film after 50 deposition cycles was 8000cm-1.160 PbSe/PbTe superlattices, with 4.2-nm and 7.0-nm periods, have been grown by ECALE.161 The (111) reflection in the XRD pattern showed a first-order satellite peak and one second-order peak, indicating the formation of the superlattice. AFM images of the superlattice structure showed a small amount of three-dimensional growth.161... 

A typical lamellar arrangement of the rods is formed in which the benzenoid n-systems lie flat on the surface. The nature of the substrate surface is, however, crucial. If the corresponding polyphenyle-neethynylenes 21 are deposited onto mica surfaces and the resulting patterns visualized by AFM, one detects micrometer long needles, whose width corresponds to the length of the polymers (Figure 2).181... 

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