Periodic Nanostructures On Polyetherimide Induced By Afm Nanolithography

In this paper we describe a nanopatterning technique of polyetherimide by scanning with the silicon tip in contact mode of atomic force microscopy. Different applied forces were used for the consecutive scanning of the same sample area. The higher applied load the less consecutive scans are necessary for the pattern formation. The most regular pattern on this aromatic polymer substrate was achieved for the applied load 150 nN. The variation of number of scans leads to increase of surface roughness due to mass transport on the polymer surface. The structure formation mapping contributes strongly to development of new applications using nanostructured polymers, e.g. in tissue engineering or in combination with metallization in selected electronics and metamaterials construction.