Monolayer resist for patterned contact printing of aligned nanowire arrays

Large-area, patterned printing of nanowires by using fluorinated self-assembled monolayers as the resist layer is demonstrated. By projecting a light pattern on the surface of the monolayer resist in an oxygen-rich environment, sticky and nonsticky regions on the surface are directly defined in a single-step process which then enables the highly specific and patterned transfer of the nanowires by the contact printing process, without the need for a subsequent lift-off step. This work demonstrates a simple route toward scalable, patterned printing of nanowires on substrates by utilizing light-tunable, nanoscale chemical interactions and demonstrates the versatility of molecular monolayers for use as a resist layer.