Patterned substrates to facilitate long-range ordering in the formation of nanoparticle monolayers by electrophoretic deposition

Nanoparticle submonolayer and monolayer films were deposited using electrophoretic deposition onto silicon substrates that were patterned with arrays of hexagonally ordered polymeric structural elements. Line structures of four different lengths were fabricated on the substrates by electron-beam lithography. Scanning electron microscopy, used to analyze the deposited nanoparticle films, confirmed that the particles tended to align along the faceted edges of these structures. Such phenomena appeared to promote correlations among the nanoparticles that facilitated ordered arrangements within the monolayers and sub-monolayers.