Organization of Block Copolymers using NanoImprint Lithography: Comparison of Theory and Experiments

TL;DR

This paper combines experimental NanoImprint lithography with theoretical modeling to study the alignment of block copolymer lamellae, demonstrating improved order and alignment over large areas compared to traditional methods.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of experimental and theoretical approaches to align BCP lamellae using NanoImprint lithography, highlighting the effectiveness of the method.

Findings

NanoImprint lithography effectively aligns BCP lamellae over large areas.

Self-consistent field modeling agrees well with experimental results.

Ordered lamellae are better aligned at thermodynamic equilibrium.

Abstract

We present NanoImprint lithography experiments and modeling of thin films of block copolymers (BCP). The NanoImprint lithography is used to align perpendicularly lamellar phases, over distances much larger than the natural lamellar periodicity. The modeling relies on self-consistent field calculations done in two- and three-dimensions. We get a good agreement with the NanoImprint lithography setups. We find that, at thermodynamical equilibrium, the ordered BCP lamellae are much better aligned than when the films are deposited on uniform planar surfaces.