Large-scale ultraflat nanopatterned surfaces without template residues

Ultraflat surfaces are required for many studies of single molecules, and the need for both a wide choice of surface materials and the ability to pattern these surfaces has led to the development of different template-stripping approaches. The fabrication of nanopatterned ultraflat surfaces is particularly challenging, because more than one material is present in the surface. We demonstrate a new template-stripping strategy that allows us to fabricate large-area nanopatterned surfaces, solving the problem of incomplete template removal by introducing a sacrificial carbon layer and a sandwich structure for the template. The thin residual carbon film transferred from the template is removed from the nanopatterned surface by dry etching, as demonstrated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and, for metal nanoparticles embedded in a glass surface, by a shift in the absorption of the localized surface plasmon resonance. We show that gold nanoparticles in a glass surface can be selectively functionalized with thiols yielding about 2 nm height increase. Atomic force microscopy and localized surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy both indicate that the nanoparticle shape is preserved well.