Stability and Orientation of Lamellae in Diblock Copolymer Films

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability and orientation of lamellae in diblock copolymer films using a mean-field model, analyzing how boundary interactions influence lamellae orientation and dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a functional approach to determine stable lamellae wavelengths and explores boundary effects on lamellae orientation and dynamics.

Findings

Lamellae are stable beyond the free energy minimum.

Boundary properties significantly influence lamellae orientation.

The time scale of orientation dynamics depends on boundary conditions and quench depth.

Abstract

The dynamics of microphase separation and the orientation of lamellae in diblock copolymers is investigated in terms of a mean-field model. The formation of lamellar structures and their stable states are explored and it is shown that lamellae are stable not only for the period of the structure corresponding to the minimum of the free energy. The range of wavelengths of stable lamellae is determined by a functional approach, introduced with this work, which is in agreement with the results of a linear stability analysis. The effects of the interaction of block copolymers with confining plane boundaries on the lamellae orientation are studied by an extensive analysis of the free energy. By changing the surface property at one boundary, a transition from a preferentially perpendicular to a parallel lamellar orientation with respect to the boundaries is found, which is rather independent of the distance between the boundaries. Computer simulations reveal, that the time scale of the lamellar orientational order dynamics, which is quantitatively characterized in terms of an orientational order parameter and the structure factor, depends significantly on the properties of the confining boundaries as well as on the quench depth.