Highly-Ordered Thin Films from Photocleavable Block Copolymers

ORAL

Abstract

A robust route for the preparation of nanoscopic dot/line patterns with long range lateral order from poly(styrene-block-ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) with an o-nitrobenzyl ester junction (PS-h$\nu $-PEO) is demonstrated. Solvent annealing condition is optimized to achieve the highly ordered cylindrical block copolymer (BCP) microdomains oriented normal or parallel to the silicon substrates. Following a very mild UV exposure and successive washing with methanol, PS-hv-PEO thin films were transformed into highly ordered porous or trench templates. Afterwards the pores or trenches were either filled with PDMS by spin-coating or exposed to direct metal deposition of Au. After a plasma etching or lift-off process to remove the polymer templates, highly ordered arrays of silica or Au nanopatterns were obtained. This represents the first template application example from highly ordered nanoporous thin films derived from block copolymers featuring a photocleavable junction.

–

Authors

  • Weiyin Gu

    University of Massachusetts at Amherst

  • Hui Zhao

    University of Hamburg

  • E. Bryan Coughlin

    University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

  • Patrick Theato

    University of Hamburg

  • Thomas Russell

    University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Massachusettes-Amherst, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, UMass Amherst, Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts-Amherst