Fabrication of nanostructures with long-range order using block copolymer lithography

Block copolymer lithography makes use of the self-assembling properties of block copolymers to pattern nanoscale features over large areas. Although the resulting patterns have good short-range order, the lack of long-range order limits their utility in some applications. This work presents a lithographically assisted self-assembly method that allows ordered arrays of nanostructures to be formed by spin casting a block copolymer over surfaces patterned with shallow grooves. The ordered block copolymer domain patterns are then transferred into an underlying silica film using a single etching step to create a well-ordered hierarchical structure consisting of arrays of silica pillars with 20 nm feature sizes and aspect ratios greater than 3. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.