Spatial Manipulation and Assembly of Nanoparticles by Atomic Force Microscopy Tip-Induced Dielectrophoresis

In this article, we present a novel method of spatial manipulation and assembly of nanoparticles via atomic force microscopy tip-induced dielectrophoresis (AFM-DEP). This method combines the high-accuracy positioning of AFM with the parallel manipulation of DEP. A spatially nonuniform electric field is induced by applying an alternating current (AC) voltage between the conductive AFM probe and an indium tin oxide glass substrate. The AFM probe acted as a movable DEP tweezer for nanomanipulation and assembly of nanoparticles. The mechanism of AFM-DEP was analyzed by numerical simulation. The effects of solution depth, gap distance, AC voltage, solution concentration, and duration time were experimentally studied and optimized. Arrays of 200 nm polystyrene nanoparticles were assembled into various nanostructures, including lines, ellipsoids, and arrays of dots. The sizes and shapes of the assembled structures were controllable. It was thus demonstrated that AFM-DEP is a flexible and powerful tool for nanomanipulation.