Plasma directed assembly and organization: bottom-up nanopatterning using top-down technology

Fabrication of periodic nanodot or nanocolumn arrays on surfaces is performed by top-down lithographic procedures or bottom-up self-assembly methods, which both make use of plasma etching to transfer the periodic pattern. Could plasma etching alone act as an assembly-organization method to create the pattern and then transfer it to the substrate? We present data that support this idea and propose a mechanism of periodicity formation where etching and simultaneous deposition take place.