We study the simultaneous capillary rupture of multiple polymer lithographic structures suspended on an immiscible viscous medium. The model system was straight polymer stripes arranged in parallel. Polystyrene (PS) and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were used because of their immiscibility and well-characterized physical properties. When annealed at a temperature above the glass transition temperature of both PS and PMMA, the stripes undulated and then ruptured via capillary instability. We found that the relative viscosity ratio between PS and PMMA strongly affected the rupture kinetics, while it had little influence on the rupture wavelength. The rupture behavior of those stripes could be drastically altered due to initial spacing and substrate confinement. For adjacent stripes in close proximity and confined on a rigid substrate, the capillary waves became correlated in-phase among neighbors. Under strong confinement, the capillary rupture was always correlated, irrespective of the viscosity ratio. In addition, we examined the influence of in-plane curvature on capillary instability in concentrically arranged PS rings. When the rings were relatively far apart, their rupture behaviors were independent from each other; when they were close to each other, the primary mode in the capillary breakup became strongly correlated from the center towards the peripheral.

Capillary instability of polymer lithographic structures: Influence of viscosity, substrate confinement and local curvature

249th National Meeting (2015)

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