Reversible metallisation of soft UV patterned substrates

Soft UV (365 nm) patterning of ortho-nitrobenzyl functionalized thiol-on-gold self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) using acid catalysis, produces surfaces which can be used for the selective electro-deposition of copper. Exploiting the difference in the reduction peak potential between the photolysed and the masked regions of the SAM allows copper to be deposited selectively on those areas that have been exposed to the light. The copper can be removed by raising the electrode potential. The process is fully reversible so that depositing a pattern of copper, and removing it again is something that can be repeated many times. The copper deposited on the photolysed regions, like copper deposited on bare gold, forms a film of copper oxide, and so it is presumably formed on top of the SAM. Preliminary results for two-photon photocleavage show that it is also possible to implement patterning with sub-wavelength features.