Surface design of monolayer-template for reproducible microfabrication of metal oxide film

This paper presents the optimum chemical template to microfabricate reproducibly the metal oxide film, i.e., tin oxide (SnOx), on the substrate from aqueous solution of tin chloride utilizing “monolayer-template-patterning (MTP)” technique. Silicon substrates covered with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) were photolithographically micropatterned to prepare the chemical templates of SAMs on SiOx/Si substrate. Three types of SAM-covered substrates, that is, CH3-, CHO-, and COOH-terminated substrates, were investigated to find the most appropriate chemical template for the MTP of SnOx. On the CH3-terminated SAM template, well-defined microstructures of SnOx were observed, while neither of others, i.e., CHO-SAM and COOH-SAM templates, has reproducibly resulted in micropatterned SnOx.