Nanopatterning of functional materials by transfer of nanoimprint-guided ordered block copolymer structures by means of reactive ion beam etching

• Applicants: Professorin Dr.-Ing. Hella-Christin Scheer; Dr.-Ing. Klaus Zimmer
• Subject Area: Polymer Materials ; Synthesis and Properties of Functional Materials
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281331116

For the economic utilization of nanostructures in various technical fields also outside microelectronics simple and fast techniques are required to produce them in functional materials. Self-organizing processes basically offer suitable pre-conditions for this purpose; however, questions regarding the combination with conventional micro-technical structuring procedures, the improvement of the degree of ordering as well as the transfer of the structures into the target material still have to be answered. The purpose of the project therefore is the guided self-organization of nanostructures in block-copolymer (BCP) layers on plane substrates by means of nanoimprint. In this way the nanostructure organization of the BCPs is simultaneously linked with the microstructures and/or sub-microstructures of the imprint stamp. The imprint stamps employed for this purpose can be re-used several times, which makes the pre-structuring of each individual substrate, as it is necessary in conventional grapho- and chemo-epitaxy, superfluous. Additionally to a topographic structuring the stamps can have a chemical structuring. The objective is to identify a fast ordering process, which - starting from the stamp surface - leads to ordered cylindrical and lamellar BCP-structures. The mobility of the BCPs required for this purpose is achieved by a careful addition of solvent and/or high process temperatures; temperature gradients, thermal cycling and electric fields support the guided ordering. When a stamp-guided self-organization is realized, this replaces the nanostructuring of each substrate and thus enables a simple and fast process. The BCP-structures that are vertically-ordered in the surface region are suitably decorated and transferred to technical substrates in a multi-step-process by means of reactive ion-beam supported techniques.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants