1. Chemistry Department Seminar

    "Interfacial Engineering for Directed Self-Assembly of Block Copolymer Thin Films"

    Presented by Hyo Seon Suh, Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

    Tuesday, June 2, 2015, 10 am
    Bldg 735, CFN, Conference Room A, 1st Floor

    Hosted by: Chuck Black

    The attempt to use thin films of block copolymers (BCPs) as the templates for nanofabrication, known as BCP lithography, has recently become a subject of special interest since the BCP can spontaneously form highly uniform nanostructures smaller than the resolution limit of current lithographic tools. For technological applications, the nanostructures of BCP thin films often must be controlled by design. In this talk, the strategies to control nanostructures of BCP films with the designed boundary conditions will be discussed. The final morphology of BCP films are not only affected by the interfacial interaction at the bottom substrate but also affected by the free surface of BCP films. Interfacial engineering for both interfaces of BCP films enables us to achieve specific, sought-after domain orientations. This interfacial engineering becomes especially critical for further reducing the feature size of BCP down to sub-10 nm, which requires the use of BCPs that can form smaller feature than the scaling limit of PS-b-PMMA. Experimental and theoretical delineation of the design rules for directed self-assembly (DSA) of high resolution BCP films will be discussed. Finally, the interfacial engineering that enables the easy release of directed assembled BCP films from the guiding templates will be also introduced. By using this strategy, pre-DSA BCP films on a single template can be transferred to the wide range of template-free substrates. This BCP printing method will widely broaden the application area of BCP lithography.