The fabrication of uniform cylindrical nanoshells and their use as spectrally tunable MRI contrast agents

A new form of tunable magnetic resonance imaging agent based on precisely dimensioned cylindrical magnetic nanoshells is introduced. Using top-down prepatterned substrates, the nanoshells are fabricated by exploiting what is usually regarded as a detrimental processing side-effect, namely the redeposition of material back-sputtered during ion-milling. The well-resolved nuclear magnetic resonance peaks of the resulting nanostructures attest to the nanoscale fabrication control and the general feasibility of such sputter redeposition for fabrication of a variety of self-supporting, highly monodisperse nanoscale structures.