Combined electrochemical atomic layer epitaxy and microcontact printing techniques

The attainment of ultrathin films of well ordered II–VI and III–V compound semiconductors is an active research area of the electrochemistry group at the University of Florence. The method employed is the electrochemical atomic layer epitaxy (ECALE) which is based on self limiting reactions such as underpotential deposition (UPD). Recently, the possibility of combining the electrodeposition at nanometer scale and the self assembly phenomena has been investigated. In particular, the ECALE method was used to deposit CdS on Ag(1 1 1) covered by a patterned hexadecanthiol (HDT) self assembled monolayer (SAM). In fact, the deposition of CdS only takes place on the uncovered silver substrate, whereas it is not possible on the thiols monolayers. The deposits have been characterized by electrochemical techniques and AFM measurements.