Selective growth and ordering of self-assembly on metal/polymer thin-film heterostructures via photothermal modulation

We show photothermal perturbation of morphology on planar aluminum/polymethyl methacrylate films, leading to alignment of location-specific self-assembled patterns. Local laser heating regularizes pattern formation in a selected area by inducing compressive stress in the metal layer as well as parti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2010-03, Vol.96 (12), p.123116-123116-3
Main Authors: Kim, Yun Young, Huang, Qiaojian, Krishnaswamy, Sridhar
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We show photothermal perturbation of morphology on planar aluminum/polymethyl methacrylate films, leading to alignment of location-specific self-assembled patterns. Local laser heating regularizes pattern formation in a selected area by inducing compressive stress in the metal layer as well as partial relaxation in the underlying polymer layer. Furthermore, this thermomechanical process enables the formation of complex structures such as line-gratings and concentric rings when an interferometric heating scheme is employed. Our photolithography-free technique achieves the spatial selectivity and controllability of growth initiation, providing a simpler way for bottom-up fabrication approach for integration of multicomponent devices.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3374322