UV-solvent annealing of PDMS-majority and PS-majority PS-b-PDMS block copolymer films

UV-solvent annealing for morphology and orientation control in self-assembled PS-PDMS thin films

The response of polystyrene-block-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PS-b-PDMS) thin films to UV exposure during solvent vapor annealing is described, in order to improve their applicability in nanolithography and nanofabrication. Two BCPs were examined, one with the PS block as majority ( fPS=68%, Mn=53 kg mol ), the other with PDMS block as majority ( fPDMS=67%, Mn=44 kg mol ). A 5 min UV irradi...

Self-Assembled Nanodot Fabrication by Using PS-PDMS Block Copolymer

Pathways of cylindrical orientations in PS-b-P4VP diblock copolymer thin films upon solvent vapor annealing.

The orientation changes of perpendicular cylindrical microdomains in polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) thin films upon annealing in different solvent vapors were investigated by in situ grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and ex situ scanning force microscopy (SFM). The swelling of P4VP perpendicular cylinders (C⊥) in chloroform, a non-selective solvent vap...

A generalized method for alignment of block copolymer films: solvent vapor annealing with soft shear.

One of the key issues associated with the utilization of block copolymer (BCP) thin films in nanoscience and nanotechnology is control of their alignment and orientation over macroscopic dimensions. We have recently reported a method, solvent vapor annealing with soft shear (SVA-SS), for fabricating unidirectional alignment of cylindrical nanostructures. This method is a simple extension of the...

Simulation methods for solvent vapor annealing of block copolymer thin films.

Recent progress in modelling the solvent vapor annealing of thin film block copolymers is examined in the context of a self-consistent field theory framework. Key control variables in determining the final microdomain morphologies include swelling ratio or swollen film solvent volume fraction, swollen film thickness, substrate and vapor atmosphere surface energies, effective volume fraction, an...