Capillary Action in Silicon-Based Nanochannels

Transducers Science and Technology Group, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box217, 7500 AEEnschede, The Netherlands n. r.tas utwente.nl 

We commemorate Dr. Joost van Honschoten, who could not witness the completion of this book. He lives on in our thoughts as a passionate scientist and a concerned colleague and friend. 

Capillary action, in particular capillary rise, is an old subject in physics literature. Already in 1717 Jurin described in detail capillary rise experiments from which he concluded that the height of liquid in a capillary tube is inversely proportional to the diameter of the tube at the location of the liquid meniscus only. Note that at the end of his letter he gave credits to our incomparable president (of the Ro) l Society), which was Isaac Newton, for having described the same principle around the same time in a supplement to the later editions of his Opticks. For a complete description of the phenomenon of capillarity (relating 

Nanoscale Liquid Inteffaces Wetting, Patterning, and Force Microscopy at the Mofecutor Scaie Edited by Thierry Ondarguhu and Jean-Pierre Aime Copyright 2013 Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. 

Silicon-based nanotechnology offers techniques for precise fabrication of artificial nanopores. Often these channels are planar (in the plane of the substrate wafer), facilitating microscope observation of liquid inside these channels. The combination of well-defined 

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