Stars made of silver structures and nanotechnology

– at ISAT of Coburg University of Applied Sciences.

Shadow mask lithography can be used to create tiny patterns on surfaces. The Institute of Sensor and Actuator Technology (ISAT) at Coburg University of Applied Sciences announces the first successful fabrication of plasmonic nanostructure by shadow mask lithography – and this has big potential for the development of highly sensitive sensors.

Nano comes from the Greek, meaning dwarf, and nanotechnology is the science and technology of tiny nanoparticles. There are so-called plasmonic nanoparticles, which have special optical properties: Plasmonic structures interact with light in unique ways and can be tailored to sensing applications as well as optoelectronic interaction. They can concentrate light into incredibly small spaces, which is crucial for developing highly sensitive sensors. These sensors have the potential to revolutionize sensing in fields like medicine, environmental monitoring, work safety.

Shadow mask lithography is a technique used to create tiny patterns on a surface. (c) Coburg University

Some highly sensitive sensors for gas sensing are based on these interactions. Plasmonic Nanostructure is an exciting field for the Institute of Sensor and Actuator Technology (ISAT) at Coburg University of Applied Sciences. The team is delighted that research into plasmonic structures has taken a significant step forward: for the first time, plasmonic nanostructures have been fabricated successfully using shadow mask lithography.

This success is the result of Yuzhong Shi’s internship semester at ISAT. The student from China has been to Coburg University as an internship student in the Emerging Technologies bachelor program for one year. “It has really opened my horizon”, he says. Many things here are very different from China: there is not rice for every meal, culture and entertainment in Franconia are very different – and there are many opportunities for practical work at Coburg University of Applied Sciences. Shi smiles: “So much chances to go into lab and simply do nano research.”

In his internship semester, he successfully fabricated plasmonic nanostructures using shadow mask lithography with polystyrene microbeads as a self-assembled mask for sputter deposition.The work was conducted at the Institute of Sensor and Actuator Technology (ISAT) under supervision of Klaus Lutter, Sandra Ebert and Prof. Dr. Thorsten Uphues.“At the university, we are happy to support young, motivated researchers to work on such complicated topics,” says Uphues.

Shadow mask lithography is a technique used to create tiny patterns on a surface. In this case, a mask with specific openings is placed between the target material and a sputtering source. The sputter material is deposited through the openings, creating the desired pattern on the surface and the mask is removed afterwards. This method offers a precise way to fabricate nanostructures. In this particular work a star like pattern of triangular shaped silver structures was achieved.

https://www.hs-coburg.de/