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High precision attachment of silver nanoparticles on AFM tips by dielectrophoresis

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Abstract

AFM tips are modified with silver nanoparticles using an AC electrical field. The used technique works with sub-micron precision and also does not require chemical modification of the tip. Based on the electrical parameters applied in the process, particle density and particle position on the apex of the tip can be adjusted. The feasibility of the method is proven by subsequent tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) measurements using the fabricated tips as a measurement probe. Since this modification process itself does not require any lithographic processing, the technique can be easily adapted to modify AFM tips with a variety of nanostructures with pre-defined properties, while being parallelizable for a potential commercial application.

Silver nanoparticles attached to AFM tips using dielectrophoresis. Comparing nanoparticles attached using 1 kHz (left) to 1 MHz (right), SEM and optical (inset) images

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Acknowledgments

We thank Franka Jahn for SEM and TEM imaging.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology Jena (IPHT), Albert-Einstein-Straße 9, 07745, Jena, Germany

      Christian Leiterer, Erik Wünsche, Prabha Singh, Jens Albert, Volker Deckert & Wolfgang Fritzsche

    2. Institute of Physical Chemistry, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Helmholtzweg 4, 07743, Jena, Germany

      Prabha Singh & Volker Deckert

    3. Institute of Micro- and Nanotechnologies, Ilmenau University of Technology, 98684, Ilmenau, Germany

      Johann M. Köhler

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    1. Christian Leiterer
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    2. Erik Wünsche
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    3. Prabha Singh
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    5. Johann M. Köhler
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    6. Volker Deckert
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    Correspondence to Christian Leiterer.

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    The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

    Funding sources

    Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF) and the German Reseach Foundation (DFG) for financial support of the project NAWION (FKZ: 16SV5386K, V4MNI014) and DEP4TERS (FKZ: FR 1348/19-1).

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    Christian Leiterer and Erik Wünsche contributed equally to this work.

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    Leiterer, C., Wünsche, E., Singh, P. et al. High precision attachment of silver nanoparticles on AFM tips by dielectrophoresis. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 3625–3631 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9447-6

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9447-6

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