Fabrication of periodic square arrays by angle-resolved nanosphere lithography

We investigate the fabrication of periodic square arrays of solid gold islands by angle-resolved nanosphere lithography (ARNSL) in conjunction with thermal evaporation and etching. By varying θ (the tilt angle between the direction of gold deposition beam and the substrate surface normal) and ϕ (the substrate rotation angle about the beam axis), adjacent islands on a deposited hexagonal gold array will have a constant and periodic difference in height. Upon etching, this height bias will result in the shorter structures being removed to produce an array with a different symmetry from the original hexagonal symmetry of the parent mask. By depositing at three directions of ϕ = 0°, 120° and −120° with a constant θ = 20°, experimental results show that deposited two-dimensional gold periodic arrays will have a measurable difference in height between adjacent islands. Etching of the resulting patterns produced periodic near-square arrays with triangular nanostructures. Thus the combination of ARNSL and etching can allow selective periodic nanostructures to be removed, increasing the diversity of array symmetries available through nanosphere lithography.