Reactive interface
patterning promoted by lithographic electrochemistry
serves as a method for generating submicrometer scale structures.
We use a binary-potential step on a metallic overlayer on silicon
to fabricate radial patterns of cobalt oxide on the nanoscale. The
mechanism for pattern formation has heretofore been ill-defined. The
binary potential step allows the electrochemical boundary conditions
to be controlled such that initial conditions for a scaling analysis
are afforded. With the use of the scaling analysis, a mechanism for
producing the observed pattern geometry is correlated to the sequence
of electrochemical steps involved in the formation of the submicrometer
structures. The patterning method is facile and adds to electrochemical
micromachining techniques employing a silicon substrate
