Nanosphere Lithography-Based Fabrication of Spherical Nanostructures and Verification of Their Hexagonal Symmetries by Image Analysis

Nanosphere lithography (NSL) is a cost- and time-effective technique for the fabrication of well-ordered large-area arrays nanostructures. This paper reviews technological challenges in NSL mask preparation, its modification, quality control. Spin coating with various process parameters (substrate wettability, solution properties, spin operating parameters) are discussed to create uniform monolayer from monodisperse polystyrene (PS) nanospheres diameter 0.2–1.5 μm. Scanning electron microscopy images show that PS ordered into hexagonal close-packed monolayer. Verification sphere ordering symmetry obtained using our open-source software HEXI, which can recognize detect circles, distinguish between defect configurations. The created template used obtain wide variety tailor-made periodic structures by applying additional treatments, such as plasma etching (isotropic anisotropic), deposition, evaporation, lift-off. prepared highly nanopatterned (from circular, triangular, pillar-shaped structures) applicable many different fields (plasmonics, photonics, sensorics, biomimetic surfaces, life science, etc.).