X-ray Scattering from Thin Films of Block Copolymers

Gila Stein, NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology

Block copolymer self-assembly offers a simple route to generating nanoscale arrays, and the thin film structures are promising as resists for nanolithography. However, thermally-generated topological defects disrupt the lateral ordering of domains, which is problematic for applications like semiconductor patterning. I will describe strategies to template single-crystals, free of disclinations and grain boundaries, using both topographic and chemical patterns. The resulting structures are characterized with grazing-incidence and transmission small-angle x-ray scattering to obtain quantitative and statistically significant measurements. We find complex ordering behavior unique to the thin film geometry, such as algebraic decay of the positional correlation function in equilibrium 2D crystals, and symmetry breaking transitions in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium multilayer systems.

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