Writing Highly Ordered Macroscopic Patterns in Cylindrical Block Polymer Thin Films Via Raster Solvent Vapor Annealing and Soft Shear

The nanoscale self-assembly of block polymers (BP) has spurred interest for the generation of nanopattern arrays essential to advanced nanotechnologies.  However, applications such as nanolithography typically require high levels of domain alignment achieved through a plethora of techniques with varying degrees of success.  In this work, the alignment of cylinder-forming triblock polymers was accomplished through raster solvent vapor annealing with soft shear (RSVA-SS).  This technique utilizes a solvent vapor delivery nozzle, a poly(dimethylsiloxane) shearing pad, and a motorized stage to spatially control the orientation of polymer nanostructures and generate a variety of patterns such as straight lines, curves, crossed lines, and dashes.  Additionally, the use of a wide slit solvent nozzle demonstrates the scalability of the RSVA-SS process for industrial applications.  RSVA-SS promises a facile method for aligning BP nanostructures conducive to future research in nanotechnology without the necessity of substrate pre-patterning.