Novel anodic aluminum oxide‐based nanofabrication: applications in physics and biology

Porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes with varying but controlled morphology are used in several complementary experiments in physics and biology. The present paper gives a description of the membrane fabrication procedure and presents a selection of applications based on the use of the membranes when used as evaporation masks in growth experiments, as masks in reactive ion etching experiments or as molds to fabricate arrays of ordered polymer nanopiliars.