Nanopatterning of Functional Oxide Ceramics

Dimensionally constrained materials are at the forefront of current materials research because of their novel and often enhanced physical, chemical and biological properties. These effects are pertinent to all classes of materials: ceramics, metals and polymers. Often times dimensionality effects are manifested as internal structure variations in polycrystalline materials. There are reports indicating that internal microstructural inhomogenities such as grain boundaries and porosity even in nanostructures can further enhance their performance metrics such as gas sensitivity, for example. These results, coupled with the maxim that "microstructure is a material’s DNA" underscore the need for novel approaches to tailor the “internal” microstructure of nanopatterns. One such technique is soft-electron beam lithography (soft-eBL), which utilizes liquid precursors (e.g. sol) as the material source for patterning variety of ceramic nanostructures with dimensional control down to 30 nm. Several novel features of soft-eBL for ceramic nanostructure fabrication and as an enabler for advanced materials characterisation and for miniaturised devices are discussed.