Improved fabrication

A team of chemists at

has developed a new type of ultrathin film, which has unusual properties that could improve the fabrication of increasingly smaller and more intricate electronic and sensing devices.

The material, a single layer made from spherical cages of carbon atoms, could enable more precise patterning of such devices with a wider range of molecular components than now is possible with conventional self-assembled monolayers. The research is published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The molecules that make up the material have larger spaces and weaker connections between them than do components of conventional self-assembled monolayers. "The bonding and structural characteristics of this monolayer give us the opportunity to replace its molecules with different molecules very easily, which opens up lots of possibilities for both directed patterning and self-assembled patterning," says Paul S. Weiss, professor of chemistry and physics.

One of the advantages of Weiss's new monolayer material is that the characteristics of its high-quality structure can improve the precision of the lithography process in the fabrication of nanoscale devices.