  In the past decade, nanopores have been developed extensively for various
potential applications, and their performance greatly depends on the surface
properties of the nanopores. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a new technology
for depositing thin films, which has been rapidly developed from a niche
technology to an established method. ALD films can cover the surface in
confined regions even in nano scale conformally, thus it is proved to be a
powerful tool to modify the surface of the synthetic nanopores and also to
fabricate complex nanopores. This review gives a brief introduction on nanopore
synthesis and ALD fundamental knowledge, then focuses on the various aspects of
synthetic nanopores processing by ALD and their applications, including
single-molecule sensing, nanofluidic devices, nanostructure fabrication and
other applications.
