Bending of lamellar microdomains of block copolymers on nonselective surfaces

Abstract

Bending of lamellar microdomains of block copolymers on nonselective surfaces has been reported. Symmetric diblock copolymers self-assemble into lamellar microdomains which can be used to create line and space patterns on substrates by controlling the orientation of microdomains. The fabrication of topographic guiding patterns began with patterning a photoresist film poly (methyl methacrylate) using electron beam lithography. Morphology and dimensions of microdomains can be readily tuned through the mixing composition and molecular weight of PS-b-PEO. The formation of these structures is well explained by 2D real-space self-consistent-field calculations, which provide additional free energy information and are good agreement with experiments. The ability to generate nonlinear geometries of lamellar microdomains using neutral topographic guiding patterns where the degree of angled topographic patterns governs the bending of lamellae assembly is of significant importance, since it could open new design rules for surface patterning for a wide range of applications including semiconductor device fabrications.