| Nature's tendency toward self-assembly
provides highly regular nanopore arrays in anodic aluminum oxide (AAO)
thin films, which serve as a template for engineered nanostructures. Arrays
of high-aspect-ratio nanotubes are fabricated using self-limiting reactions
in atomic layer deposition (ALD) to achieve very high conformality and
thickness control. After wet etching to remove the AAO template, nanotubes
are obtained either as thin films. This transmission electron microscopy
image shows ALD HfO2 nanotubes after removal of the AAO, demonstrating
an attractive route to nanomanufacturing. |
