Additive manufacturing of Zn with submicron resolution and its conversion into Zn/ZnO core-shell structures

On the Resolution Limit of Electrohydrodynamic Redox 3D Printing

Additive manufacturing (AM) will empower the next breakthroughs in nanotechnology by combining unmatched geometrical freedom with nanometric resolution. Despite recent advances, no micro-AM technique has been able to synthesize functional nanostructures with excellent metal quality and sub-100 nm resolution. Here, significant breakthroughs in electrohydrodynamic redox 3D printing (EHD-RP) are reported by directly fabricating high-purity Cu (>98 at.%) with adjustable voxel size from >6µm down to 50 nm. This unique tunability of the feature size is achieved by managing in-flight solvent evaporation of the ion-loaded droplet to either trigger or prevent the Coulomb explosion. In the first case, the landing of confined droplets on the substrate allows the fabrication of high-aspect-ratio 50 nm-wide nanopillars, while in the second, droplet disintegration leads to large-area spray deposition. It is discussed that the reported pillar width corresponds to the ultimate resolution achievable by EHD printing. The unrivaled feature size and growth rate (>100 voxel s-1) enable the direct manufacturing of 30 µm-tall atom probe tomography (APT) tips that unveil the pristine microstructure and chemistry of the deposit. This method opens up prospects for the development of novel materials for 3D nano-printing.

Direct In- and Out-of-Plane Writing of Metals on Insulators by Electron-Beam-Enabled, Confined Electrodeposition with Submicrometer Feature Size

Additive microfabrication processes based on localized electroplating enable the one-step deposition of micro-scale metal structures with outstanding performance, e.g., high electrical conductivity and mechanical strength. They are therefore evaluated as an exciting and enabling addition to the existing repertoire of microfabrication technologies. Yet, electrochemical processes are generally restricted to conductive or semiconductive substrates, precluding their application in the manufacturing of functional electric devices where direct deposition onto insulators is often required. Here, the direct, localized electrodeposition of copper on a variety of insulating substrates, namely Al2O3, glass and flexible polyethylene, is demonstrated, enabled by electron-beam-induced reduction in a highly confined liquid electrolyte reservoir. The nanometer-size of the electrolyte reservoir, fed by electrohydrodynamic ejection, enables a minimal feature size on the order of 200 nm. The fact that the transient reservoir is established and stabilized by electrohydrodynamic ejection rather than specialized liquid cells can offer greater flexibility toward deposition on arbitrary substrate geometries and materials. Installed in a low-vacuum scanning electron microscope, the setup further allows for operando, nanoscale observation and analysis of the manufacturing process.

Nanodroplet Flight Control in Electrohydrodynamic Redox 3D Printing

Electrohydrodynamic 3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique with enormous potential in plasmonics, microelectronics, and sensing applications thanks to its broad material palette, high voxel deposition rate, and compatibility with various substrates. However, the electric field used to deposit material is concentrated at the depositing structure, resulting in the focusing of the charged droplets and geometry-dependent landing positions, which complicates the fabrication of complex 3D shapes. The low level of concordance between the design and printout seriously impedes the development of electrohydrodynamic 3D printing and rationalizes the simplicity of the designs reported so far. In this work, we break the electric field centrosymmetry to study the resulting deviation in the flight trajectory of the droplets. Comparison of experimental outcomes with predictions of an FEM model provides new insights into the droplet characteristics and unveils how the product of droplet size and charge uniquely governs its kinematics. From these insights, we develop reliable predictions of the jet trajectory and allow the computation of optimized printing paths counterbalancing the electric field distortion, thereby enabling the fabrication of geometries with unprecedented complexity.