Patterning semiconductor nanocrystals in polymer films

This paper reports a method of patterning semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) in a polymer film. By combining lithographic concept with polymerization-induced phase separation in a NC-monomer mixture, we produced topographic and lateral compositional patterns in NC-polymer films. The quality of the patterns was controlled by the competition between the rate of polymerization-induced phase separation and the change in viscosity of the polymerizing mixture.