High molecular weight block copolymer lithography for nanofabrication of hard mask and photonic nanostructures

An unusual dot pattern was realized via self-assembly of high molecular weight polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane (PS-b-PDMS) copolymer by a simple one-step solvent annealing process, optimized based on Hansen solubility parameters. Annealing PS-b-PDMS under neutral solvent vapors at room temperature produces an ordered arrangement of dots with ∼112 nm spacing and ∼54 nm diameter.

The template is highly resistant to dry etching with chlorine-based plasma, enabling its utilization on a variety of hard masks and substrates. The self-assembled PDMS dots were further exploited as a template for direct patterning of silicon, metal, and dielectric materials. This nanopatterning methodology circumvents expensive and time-consuming atomic layer deposition, wet processes, and sequential infiltration techniques.

Application-wise, we show a process to fabricate nanostructured antireflection surfaces (nanocones) on a 2 in. silicon wafer, reducing the reflectance of planar silicon from 35% to below 0.5% over a broad wavelength range. Alternatively, nanocones made of TiO2 on silicon exhibit low reflectance (