Nanoembossing induced ferroelectric lithography on PZT films for silver particle patterning

The concept of growing nanosize particles on polarized ferroelectric domain areas is known as ferroelectric lithography (FL). Here, a further step of technical development was achieved by combining nanoembossing technique with the FL to realize the selective growth of silver on the polarized areas induced by nanoembossing. The induced rearrangements of domain distributions by embossing in the ferroelectric films have been characterized by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The selective photochemical reduction of silver particles on the embossed nanostructures associated with the underlying domain patterns created by the nanoembossing process has been successfully demonstrated. This nanoembossing induced ferroelectric lithography (NIFL) developed in this work is expected to create an alternative route for nanoscale patterning of metals.