We manipulate Au particles with the AFM, using our standard protocols, and then link them by using di-thiols. Several linked patterns are shown on the left side of the figure below. The resulting “sub-assemblies” can be moved further, and placed so as to form a larger assembly, as shown on the right. In principle, arbitrary (planar) assemblies can be constructed in this way.
References:
A. A. G. Requicha, R. Resch, N. Montoya, B. E. Koel, A. Madhukar and P. Will, “Towards hierarchical nanoassembly”, IEEE/RSJ Int’l Conf. on Intelligent Robots & Systems, Kyongju, Korea, October 17-21, 1999.
R. Resch, C. Baur, A. Bugacov, B.E. Koel, P.M. Echternach, A.Madhukar, N. Montoya, A.A.G. Requicha, Peter Will, “Linking and manipulation of gold multi-nanoparticle structures using dithiols and scanning force microscopy”, J. Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 103, pp. 3647-3650, 1999. (PDF version)
