Recent Advances in Cantilever-Free Scanning Probe Lithography: High-Throughput, Space-Confined Synthesis of Nanostructures and Beyond

Scalability is the major challenge for scanning probe lithography (SPL). Recently developed cantilever-free scanning probe technologies provide a solution to the issue of scalability by incorporating massive arrays of polymer pens, which fundamentally overcome the low-throughput nature of SPL. The further development of cantilever-free SPL brings up a variety of applications in electronics, biology, and chemical synthesis. In this Perspective, we highlight the space-confined synthesis of complex nanostructures enabled by different types of cantilever-free SPL technologies.