American Chemical Society, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 8(6), p. 5835-5843, 2014
DOI: 10.1021/am500695h
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Directed assembly of nanomaterials is a promising route for the synthesis of nanoscale materials. In this letter we demonstrate the directed-assembly of highly ordered two dimensional arrays of hierarchical nanostructures with tunable size, spacing, and composition. The directed assembly is achieved on lithographically patterned metal films that are subsequently pulse-laser melted; during the brief liquid lifetime the pattened nanostructures assemble into highly ordered primary and secondary nanoparticles, with sizes below that which was originally patterned. Complementary fluid-dynamics simulations emulate the resultant patterns and show how the competition of capillary forces and liquid metal - solid substrate interaction potential drives the directed assembly. As an example of the enhanced functionality, a full-wave electromagnetic analysis has been performed to identify the nature of the supported plasmonic resonances.