Nanoskiving: A slight variant of it!

Nanoskiving is a new technique pioneered by George M. Whitesides group that combines thin-film deposition of metal on a topographically contoured substrate with sectioning using an ultramicrotome. G. M. Whitesides is best known to have pioneered soft lithography.

Microtomes have been used since 1800 by biologists to cut thin slices of specimen. The ultramicrotome cuts routinely 200 nm slices.

And, it was very clever to use it for nanofabricating structures! I used a variant of the Nanoskiving technique to manufacture extreme high aspect ratio nanowires.

The moral of the story is to learn from the masters who are inspired in devising lithographic techniques to produce awesome nanostructures, which would otherwise be challenging with conventional lithographic techniques. One of my favorite lithographic masters is Teri W. Odom. Very creative!