Fabrication of nanoscale vertical colloid device architectures

The design, fabrication and preliminary testing of a vertical nanodevice comprising an active region of gold colloidal nanoparticles deposited within a silicon nanopillar architecture is presented. Each step of the fabrication is a parallel process, starting with the production of an array of silicon pillars using natural lithographic techniques. Electrical measurements through a small array of these pillars show linear behaviour in the current-voltage curves, which lead to a pillar resistance value fully commensurate with the known geometry. The results in this paper show the fabrication at each stage, and when combined with characterisation data represent a demonstration of the 'proof of principle' of our approach. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.