Letter abstract
Nature Nanotechnology 4, 664 - 668 (2009)
Published online: 6 September 2009 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.254
Subject Categories: Nanomaterials | Surface patterning and imaging
Thermochemical nanopatterning of organic semiconductors
Oliver Fenwick1,2, Laurent Bozec1,3, Dan Credgington1,2, Azzedine Hammiche4, Giovanni Mattia Lazzerini5, Yaron R. Silberberg1 & Franco Cacialli1,2
Abstract
Patterning of semiconducting polymers on surfaces is important for various applications in nanoelectronics and nanophotonics. However, many of the approaches to nanolithography that are used to pattern inorganic materials are too harsh for organic semiconductors, so research has focused on optical patterning1, 2, 3 and various soft lithographies4. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to thermal5, thermomechanical6, 7 and thermochemical8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 patterning. Here, we demonstrate thermochemical nanopatterning of poly(p-phenylene vinylene), a widely used electroluminescent polymer14, by a scanning probe. We produce patterned structures with dimensions below 28 nm, although the tip of the probe has a diameter of 5 
m, and achieve write speeds of 100 m s-1. Experiments show that a resolution of 28 nm is possible when the tip–sample contact region has dimensions of 
100 nm and, on the basis of finite-element modelling, we predict that the resolution could be improved by using a thinner resist layer and an optimized probe. Thermochemical lithography offers a versatile, reliable and general nanopatterning technique because a large number of optical materials, including many commercial crosslinker additives and photoresists, rely on chemical mechanisms that can also be thermally activated8, 15, 16.
- London Centre for Nanotechnology, 17-19 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH, UK
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD, UK
- Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, UK
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Via G. Caruso 16, 56122, Pisa, Italy
Correspondence to: Franco Cacialli1,2 e-mail: f.cacialli@ucl.ac.uk
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