{rfName}

Indexed in

License and use

Citations

44

Altmetrics

Grant support

The authors thankthe US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (under award no. DE-SC0018924), the US Army Research Office (under Award no. W911NF2020116) and the National Science Foundation (award NSF CBET -1914539). The experiments were performed with a NanoFrazor system acquired through award no. NSF MRI -1929453. This Primer is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 948225, project B3YOND. This work was partially performed at PoliFAB, the microtechnology and nanotechnology centre of the Politecnico di Milano.

Analysis of institutional authors

Calò, AnnalisaAuthor
Share
Publications
>
Article

Thermal scanning probe lithography

Publicated to:Nature Reviews Methods Primers. 2 (1): 32- - 2022-05-05 2(1), DOI: 10.1038/s43586-022-00110-0

Authors: Albisetti, E; Calo, A; Zanut, A; Zheng, XR; de Peppo, GM; Riedo, E

Affiliations

Inst Bioengn Catalonia IBEC, Nanoscale Bioelect Characterizat Grp, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia - Author
Nanoscale Bioelectrical Characterization. Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia - Author
NYU, Tandon Sch Engn, New York, NY 10003 USA - Author
Polytech Univ Milan, Dept Phys, Milan, Italy - Author
Univ Barcelona, Dept Elect & Biomed Engn, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Westlake Univ, Sch Engn, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Peoples R China - Author
See more

Abstract

Thermal scanning probe lithography (tSPL) is a nanofabrication method for the chemical and physical nanopatterning of a large variety of materials and polymer resists with a lateral resolution of 10 nm and a depth resolution of 1 nm. In this Primer, we describe the working principles of tSPL and highlight the characteristics that make it a powerful tool to locally and directly modify material properties in ambient conditions. We introduce the main features of tSPL, which can pattern surfaces by locally delivering heat using nanosized thermal probes. We define the most critical patterning parameters in tSPL and describe post-patterning analysis of the obtained results. The main sources of reproducibility issues related to the probe and the sample as well as the limitations of the tSPL technique are discussed together with mitigation strategies. The applications of tSPL covered in this Primer include those in biomedicine, nanomagnetism and nanoelectronics; specifically, we cover the fabrication of chemical gradients, tissue-mimetic surfaces, spin wave devices and field-effect transistors based on two-dimensional materials. Finally, we provide an outlook on new strategies that can improve tSPL for future research and the fabrication of next-generation devices.

Keywords
Beam lithographyDesignFeature sizeForce microscope cantileversMos2PolymerSiliconSpeedThermochemical nanolithographyTip

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Nature Reviews Methods Primers due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Medicine (Miscellaneous). Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.71. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 6.67 (source consulted: Dimensions May 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-05-10, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 20
  • Scopus: 24
  • OpenCitations: 18
Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-05-10:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 46.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 45 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 14.3.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 8 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/11311/1221264
Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: China; Italy; United States of America.