Transfer of biologically derived nanometer-scale patterns to smooth substrates

Atomic force microscopy has been used to measure the surface profile of a periodic array of 10-nanometer (nm)-diameter holes fabricated by fast-atom beam milling of a smooth graphite surface in which a 3.5-nm-thick titanium oxide screen was used as a mask. The nanostructured titanium oxide mask was itself derived from a protein crystal template. Pattern transfer from the biological crystal to the metal oxide film and finally to the graphite substrate was accomplished entirely by parallel processing.
We report the use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) to probe the topography of a periodically nanostructured surface. In these experiments, two-dimensional (2-D) protein crystals are adsorbed to smooth substrates [...]