Abstract
Local control of domain orientation in diblock copolymer thin films is demonstrated through the use of external electric fields. Thin films of a polystyrene-polymethylmethacrylate diblock copolymers, denoted P(S-b-MMA), were spin coated onto silicon nitride membrane substrates with prefabricated in-plane electrodes, forming cylindrical PMMA microdomains. Films annealed under an applied electric field (E ≤ 37V/µm) at 250°C for 24h under an argon atmosphere showed an alignment of the cylindrical microdomains parallel to the electric field lines. A quantitative measure of the degree of alignment was obtained by correlating the local field strength, E, and direction with the observed cylinder orientation. The alignment was found to saturate above E≈30V/µm, and to decrease rapidly as E falls below this value.
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Acknowledgement
We thank T. A. Witten for many helpful discussions, and E. E. Ehrichs for assistance with lithography. This work was supported in part by the MRSEC program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Award No. DMR-9400379. The silicon nitride membranes were fabricated at the National Nanofabrication Facility at Cornell, which is supported by NSF under Grant ECS-8619049. HMJ acknowledges fellowship support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. TPR and PM acknowledge the support of the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under contract FG03-88ER-45375.
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Morkved, T.L., Lopes, W.A., Lu, M. et al. Electric Field Induced Control of Thin Film Diblock Copolymer Domain Orientation. MRS Online Proceedings Library 461, 109–114 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-461-109
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-461-109