Ultrasound Facilitates Nanolithography and Nanomanipulation

Ultrasonic AFM may improve fabrication technologies on the nanometer scale. In the presence of ultrasonic vibration, hard surfaces can be indented and scratched with the tip of a soft cantilever, due to its inertia. Ultrasound reduces or even eliminates friction, and hence modifies the tip-nanoparticle-surface interactions in AFM manipulation. The subsurface sensitivity of the technique makes feasible the purposed manipulation of subsurface nanoscale features by ultrasonic actuation