Selective Metal-vapor Deposition on Organic Surfaces

Selective metal-vapor deposition signifies that metal-vapor atoms are deposited on a hard organic surface, but not on a soft (low glass transition temperature, low Tg ) surface. In this paper, we introduce the origin, extension, and applications of selective metal-vapor deposition. An amorphous photochromic diarylethene film shows light-controlled selective metal-vapor deposition, which is caused by a large Tg change based on photoisomerization, but various organic surfaces, including organic crystal and polymers, can be utilized for achieving selective metal-vapor deposition. Various applications of selective metal-vapor deposition, including cathode patterning of organic light-emitting devices, micro-thin-film fuses, multifunctional diffraction gratings, in-plane electrical bistability for memory devices, and metal-vapor integration, have been demonstrated.