Nanopatterning via Pressure‐Induced Instabilities in Thin Polymer Films

Abstract

The residual stresses in spin‐coated films can be exploited to produce highly controlled nanoscale patterns via pressure‐induced local rupturing and dewetting of thin films. Residue‐free holes as small as 28 nm in diameter formed over large areas by pressing sharp stamps into polymer films at temperatures well below the glass transition temperature.

Nanopatterning of Plasma Polymer Thin Films by ArF Photolithography: Impact of Polymer Structure on Patterning Properties

“…Different micro‐ or nano‐fabrication techniques have been reported in the literature 1. Recent examples include optical lithography,2 electron beam lithography,3 X‐ray lithography,4 laser writing,5 scanning probe techniques (including electro optical near‐field lithography,6 pen nanolithography,7 dip‐pen lithography,8 nanoshaving9 and thermal scribing10), microcontact printing,11 micro‐phase separation of block copolymers,12 dewetting,13 nanoimprint lithography14 or electrochemical nanopatterning 15. The size of the achievable patterns is strongly dependent of the technique used and can vary between the micrometer to the sub‐10 nanometer length scale.…”

A novel paradigm for the fabrication of highly uniform nanowire arrays using residual stress-induced patterning

“…Detailed polymer patterning method has been described in our previous publication. [34] The polymer that we used in this work was polystyrene (PS, Mw 50k, PolyScience Inc.). Briefly, PS film spun cast onto a single crystal ZnO (sc-ZnO) substrate (Semiconductor Wafer, Inc.) or a textured ZnO seed layer chemically grown on a Si substrate [10] was approached by a fluorinated Si stamps containing 2D conical-shaped sharp tip arrays, with tip radius of < 10nm, tip length of 0.5-1.5 μm, and periodicity of 2.12 μm (Figure 1).…”

“…We previously reported a non-conventional nanopatterning technique based on pressure-induced instabilities in polymer thin films. [34] Herein, we have employed this technique to synthesize highly uniform, vertically aligned ZnO NWs at nanometer resolution. In contrast to conventional lithography techniques, our method is able to produces patterns with residual-free surfaces in a single step.…”

Intra- and intermolecular-interaction-controlled reversible core–shell structures and photoluminescent properties of lanthanide ion-doped diblock copolymers

“…Residual stresses are an extra driving force for dewetting, and are oen at least the same order of magnitude as the acting capillary forces 35. Any internal or external disturbances, such as heating, dust particles, lm defects, or local mechanical forces acting on the lm surface, provide a route for nucleation and the relaxation of residual stresses 38. Furthermore, residual stresses arise from the strong biaxial constraint of the polymer lm to the substrate.…”