Template-free alignment of lamellar block copolymers for large area sub-10 nm patterning and hybrid nanowire-nanoparticle structures

The template-free alignment of BCPs for sub-10 nm patterning, which is needed for the stand-alone use of BCPs in patterning, has not been achieved to date. In this work, we show the template-free alignment of lamellar BCPs for sub-10 nm patterning and generating hybrid nanostructures over large areas. We use zone annealing-soft shear for the self-assembly and the alignment of the vertically oriented lamellar BCPs confined between neutral layers. Furthermore, we use these aligned BCP templates to generate large area aligned gold nanowires having tunable dimensions. We extend the use of shear alignment of BCPs to atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) synthesized polymer grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) and BCP blends. We demonstrate the use of the aligned PGNP-BCP blends to generate hybrid metallic nanowire-dielectric nanoparticle structure with precise placement, by converting one of the BCP domains to gold nanowires and etching the organic materials. These hybrid nanostructures show distinct plasmonic resonance with a shift of peak intensity of 15 nm as compared to neat gold nanowires. These findings open avenues to design novel nanostructures having applications in nanopatterning, electronics, optical and magnetic materials.