Thin film processing using S-layer proteins: biotemplated assembly of colloidal gold etch masks for fabrication of silicon nanopillar arrays

We explored the bionanofabrication of silicon nanopillar structures using ordered gold nanoparticle arrays generated from microbial surface layer (S-layer) protein templates. The S-layer template used for these thin film processing experiments was isolated from the Gram-positive bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. In this preliminary work, S-layers preimmobilized onto chemically modified silicon substrates were initially used to template the fabrication of a nanolithographic hard mask pattern comprised of a hexagonally ordered array of 5-nm gold nanoparticles (lattice constant = 18 nm). Significantly, the use of the biotemplated gold nanoparticle mask patterns in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching process successfully yielded silicon nanopillar structures. However, it was found that the resultant nanopillars (8–13 nm wide at the tip, 15–20 nm wide at half-height, 20–30 nm wide at the base, and 60–90 nm tall) appeared to lack any significant degree of translational ordering. The results suggest that further studies are needed in order to elucidate the optimal plasma processing parameters that will lead to the generation of long-range ordered arrays of silicon-based nanostructures using S-layer protein templates.     

Hydrodynamic optical alignment for microflow cytometry

A microfabricated flow cytometer has been developed that is capable of detecting nearly all of the microparticles in an aqueous suspension. Current design allows for integrated coupling between an optical fiber-based detection system and the particle stream via hydrodynamic focusing. By adjusting the relative flow-rates at the auxiliary inputs of the focusing manifold, the particle stream can be steered out-of-plane relative to the illuminating laser, and similarly the particle stream can be squeezed or expanded. The microfabricated device was constructed in polydimethylsiloxane with cross-sectional microfluidic dimensions of 125 μm×125 μm. Using the present device and method, fluorescent microparticles in aqueous solution were counted at an absolute counting efficiency of 91±4%. The coefficient of variation of the fluorescence pulse-heights for far-red fluorescent microparticles was 15%. The device exhibited a linear response to fluorescence intensity calibration microparticles as shown by comparison with a commercial cytometer instrument.