Nanoskiving: a novel method for nanofabrication and its applications in nanophotonics

Nanoskiving is a novel and inexpensive method that has been used to fabricate both isolated nanostructures and ordered arrays of nanostructures. The dimensions of the nanostructures are determined by i) the thickness of the deposited thinfilm (tens of nanometers), ii) the topography (sub-μm, using soft lithography) of the surface onto which the thin-film is deposited, and iii) the thickness of the section cut by the microtome (> 30 nm by ultramicrotomy). Nanoskiving can fabricate complex nanostructures that are difficult or impossible to achieve by other methods of nanofabrication. These include multilayer structures, structures on curved surfaces, structures that span gaps, structures in less familiar materials, structures with high aspect ratios, and large-area structures comprising two-dimensional periodic arrays. In this paper, we described the history, procedure, and applications, particularly in nanophotonics, of nanoskiving.