Giant Vesicle Fusion on Microelectrodes Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser Ablation Followed by Synchrotron Radiation Etching

We have developed a new technique for fabricating a hole (well) with a diameter of about 1 µm for a microelectrode on the surface of SiO 2 (600 nm)/CoSi 2 (10 nm)/Si substrate. This process enabled the fabrication of electrode holes while maintaining the original nanolevel flatness ( R a ∼0.8 nm) of the SiO 2 surface. A lipid bilayer was formed by giant vesicle fusion on these microelectrodes. Fluorescence microscope, in situ atomic force microscope and electrical characteristics measurements showed that a single lipid bilayer of sufficiently high resistance (gigaohm seal) was successfully fabricated.