The self assembly of block copolymers in thin films has received increased attention as a promising method for parallel fabrication of nanostructures.  In order to guide the orientation and long range order of the resulting structures, we introduced a templating approach based on using low spatial frequency arrays of artificial microdomain-like guides.  Results from the self-assembly of a thin film of spherical-morphology block copolymer on templates containing polymer brush coated nanoscale posts that act as substitutional artificial domains for the minority domain of the block copolymer are discussed. The orientation and periodicity of the resulting array of spherical microdomains are found to depend on the commensurability between the block copolymer and the template lattices, and is accurately described by a free-energy model. Applications and further research directions will be discussed in the contexts of block copolymer lithography and fundamental polymer physics studies.

Directing block copolymer self-assembly by templating with artificial microdomains

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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