The disclosed embodiments provide a system that performs molecular assembly. During operation, the system delivers one or more droplets of a fluid onto a surface using a nanofluidic delivery probe and an associated high-precision positioning device, wherein the solution comprises a solvent and one or more solute molecules, and wherein delivery of the droplets onto the surface facilitates evaporation-driven assembly of one or more structures on the surface. Moreover, while delivering a droplet onto the surface, the system controls a size of the droplet and a shape of the droplet during evaporation to produce a variety of shapes in resulting structures.

Techniques regarding nanofluidic chips with a plurality of inlets and/or outlets in fluid communication with one or more nanoDLD arrays are provided. For example, one or more embodiments described herein can comprise a nanoscale deterministic lateral displacement array between and in fluid communication with a global inlet and a global outlet. The nanoscale deterministic lateral displacement array can further be between and in fluid communication with a local inlet and a local outlet. Also, the nanoscale deterministic lateral displacement array can laterally displace a particle comprised within a sample fluid supplied from the global inlet to a collection region that directs the particle to the local outlet. An advantage of such an apparatus can be the expanded versatility of the nanoscale deterministic lateral displacement array for sample preparation applications involving nanoparticles not accessible to other higher throughput microscale microfluidic technologies.

An imaging device and method of using is provided that requires no traditional optics but uses an addressable array of vertically oriented carbon nanotubes. The technique relies on the ability to reduce the nearest neighbor spacing between the carbon nanotubes to less than the wavelength of light used in traditional optical microscopes. The nanoscope can have a resolution of less than 100 nm. Electrophoresis deposition can be used to direct the assembly of the carbon nanotubes onto interconnects in an integrated circuit, which could be used to address the array. The device is portable, compact, and does not utilize complicated components. It also derives spatially resolved dielectric and chemical properties of a sample to be imaged.

Provided are plasmon resonance imaging devices having metal-insulator-metal nanocups and methods of use thereof.

A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming two or more catalyst nanoparticles from a metal layer disposed over a substrate in two or more openings of a hard mask patterned over the metal layer. The method also includes growing two or more carbon nanotubes using the catalyst nanoparticles, and removing the carbon nanotubes to form two or more nanoscale pores. The two or more nanoscale pores may be circular nanoscale pores having a substantially uniform diameter. The two or more openings in the hard mask may have non-uniform size, and the substantially uniform diameter of the two or more nanopores may be controlled by a size of the carbon nanotubes.

A device for making a carbon nanotube array includes a chamber, a gas diffusing unit and a gas supplying pipe. The gas diffusing unit and the gas supplying pipe are in the chamber. The gas diffusing unit is a hollow structure and defines a hole and an outlet. The gas supplying pipe includes a first end and a second end opposite to the first end. The first end extends out of the chamber. The second end is in the chamber and connected to the hole.

Embodiments described herein include an antimicrobial substrate surface. An example embodiment includes a structure that includes an antimicrobial surface on a substrate. The antimicrobial surface includes a plurality of nanostructures. Each nanostructure includes a nanopillar on the substrate. The nanopillar has a height. Each nanostructure also includes a head covering a distal end and at least part of the height of the nanopillar.

A technique related to sorting entities is provided. An inlet is configured to receive a fluid, and an outlet is configured to exit the fluid. A nanopillar array, connected to the inlet and the outlet, is configured to allow the fluid to flow from the inlet to the outlet. The nanopillar array includes nanopillars arranged to separate entities by size. The nanopillars are arranged to have a gap separating one nanopillar from another nanopillar. The gap is constructed to be in a nanoscale range.

A metal nanolaminate includes a plurality of units stacked in a longitudinal direction of the metal nanolaminate. Each of the units includes a first layer and a second layer stacked in the longitudinal direction. The first layer includes a first metal material formed of a first metallic element and the second layer includes the first metal material and a second metal material formed of a second metallic element. Each of the first layer and the second layer has a thickness of at least 5 nm but less than 100 nm in the longitudinal direction.

A method of preparing an optical element made of a transparent plastic with embedded or firmly bound nanoparticles, the method comprising: a) exposing the optical element to nanoparticles and to a liquid that causes the nanoparticles to diffuse into or become firmly bound to the optical element; and b) maintaining the optical element and the liquid at a range of pressures greater than one atmosphere, and at a range of diffusion temperatures greater than the boiling point of the liquid at one atmosphere, while the liquid remains in a liquid state, for a time interval, while the nanoparticles diffuse into or firmly bind to the optical element.