Localised solid-state nanopore fabrication via controlled breakdown using on-chip electrodes

Jasper P. Fried, Jacob L. Swett, Binoy Paulose Nadappuram, Aleksandra Fedosyuk, Alex Gee, Ondrej E. Dyck, James R. Yates, Aleksandar P. Ivanov, Joshua B. Edel, Jan A. Mol

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Controlled breakdown has recently emerged as a highly accessible technique to fabricate solid-state nanopores. However, in its most common form, controlled breakdown creates a single nanopore at an arbitrary location in the membrane. Here, we introduce a new strategy whereby breakdown is performed by applying the electric field between an on-chip electrode and an electrolyte solution in contact with the opposite side of the membrane. We demonstrate two advantages of this method. First, we can independently fabricate multiple nanopores at given positions in the membrane by localising the applied field to the electrode. Second, we can create nanopores that are self-aligned with complementary nanoelectrodes by applying voltages to the on-chip electrodes to locally heat the membrane during controlled breakdown. This new controlled breakdown method provides a path towards the affordable, rapid, and automatable fabrication of arrays of nanopores self-aligned with complementary on-chip nanostructures. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9881-9889
Number of pages9
JournalNano Research
Volume15
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2022

Funding

The authors would like to thank Kevin Lester and Daryl Briggs for their assistance with preparing the wafers. J. P. F. thanks the Oxford Australia Scholarship committee and the University of Western Australia for funding. Substrate, membrane, and some electrode fabrication were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. J. R. Y. was funded by an FCT contract according to DL57/2016, [SFRH/BPD/80071/2011]. Work in J. R. Y.’s lab was funded by national funds through FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., Project MOSTMICRO-ITQB with refs UIDB/04612/2020 and UIDP/04612/2020 and Project PTDC/NAN-MAT/31100/2017. J. M. was supported through the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, Grant No. MR/S032541/1, with in-kind support from the Royal Academy of Engineering. A. P. I. and J. B. E. acknowledge support from BBSRC grant BB/R022429/1, EPSCR grant EP/P011985/1, and Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund grant 600322/05. This project has also received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Nos. 724300 and 875525). O. D. and STEM investigations were supported by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility. The authors would like to thank Andrew Briggs for providing funding for some of the equipment and facilities used.

Keywords

  • dielectric breakdown
  • nanofabrication
  • nanopore arrays
  • single-molecule sensing
  • solid-state nanopores

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Localised solid-state nanopore fabrication via controlled breakdown using on-chip electrodes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this