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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
The formation of electrochemically etched, self-organised nanostructures on aluminium enables the production of large area regular arrays in a fast and cost-effective way. These microstructures could form the basis to develop masks for subsequent materials deposition without the need for time consuming patterning techniques.
The desired regular arrays result from a steady state interaction between the electrolyte and samples' surface under the influence of a cell potential. The type of array formed depends on this cell potential and shows an evolution from lines to dots.
Although a gradual progress towards a regular lattice spanning large areas is expected, the presence of initial disturbances of the samples' surface or bulk distorts the final lattice considerably. In this work the modulation depth and type of the resultant nanostructures produced at different cell potentials are assessed in view of practical applications.