Seeded glancing-angle deposition of nanoparticle-nanowire hybrid structures*

The controllable handling of an arbitrary single particle of matter < 50 nm is an essential but unsolved technological challenge. Applications are wide, ranging from fabrication of functionalized scanning probe tips and samples to the sorting of biological particles such as enzymes and viruses for research and drug development [1-4]. Here, we demonstrate a method to handle single copies of nanoparticles (NP) with diameters from 10-100 nm. The procedure is based on the production of nanoparticle-nanowire hybrid structures using glancing-angle deposition (GLAD), with arbitrary NP seeds. The result is a nanoparticle tip attached to a silicon oxide nanowire handle for facile manipulation. To showcase the generality and versatility of the process, we demonstrate its applicability to a range of NP sizes and compositions (FeO, Au, and Fe@C NP). Such tip-handle growth using arbitrary NPs enables manipulation and heterostructure creation at nanoscale, with wide-ranging applications.

[1] 10.1038/s41565-018-0150-y
[2] 10.1073/pnas.1209288109
[3] 10.2217/nnm.11.167
[4] 10.1038/nnano.2014.140