Fabrication of a Conjugated Polymer on Surfaces Studied by Electron Microscopy

A controlled ``in-situ'' nano-patterning is highly demanded in various fields of nano-technology. A nano-rod array oriented perpendicular to the substrate is one of the typical nano-structures useful in energy, biomimetic and memory applications. We here proposed a novel nano-patterning method to synthesize polymers by irradiation of electron beam into monomer liquid under atmospheric pressure and concurrently to pattern nano-rod array by scanning the beam. A polymer that can be synthesized by this method includes the poly(3-hexylthiophene), one of the most frequently used conjugated polymers in an organic photovoltaic device. The ``Atmospheric Scanning Electron Microscope (ASEM),'' which enables us to observe morphologies and dynamic phenomena in liquid under atmospheric pressure, was used for fabricating nano-rod structures in this study.