Graphoepitaxy for Pattern Multiplication of Nanoparticle Monolayers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how graphoepitaxy can be used to control nanoparticle monolayer patterns, enabling the formation of square lattices over large areas by using periodic templates, with potential applications in nanofabrication.

Contribution

It introduces a computational approach combining density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulations to show pattern control in nanoparticle monolayers via enthalpic barriers.

Findings

Square templates disrupt hexagonal packing, favoring square lattices.

Patterning can be scaled up to ten times the particle diameter.

Graphoepitaxy effectively orders nanoparticulate films into desired patterns.

Abstract

We compute the free energy minimizing structures of particle monolayers in the presence of enthalpic barriers of a finite height \b{eta}Vext using classical density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulations. We show that a periodic square template with dimensions up to at least ten times the particle diameter disrupts the formation of the entropically favored hexagonally close-packed 2D lattice in favor of a square lattice. The results illustrate how graphoepitaxy can successfully order nanoparticulate films into desired patterns many times smaller than those of the prepatterned template.