Breaking the symmetry of nanosphere lithography with anisotropic plasma etching induced by temperature gradients.

ABSTRACT: We report a novel anisotropic process, termed plasma etching induced by temperature gradients (PE-TG), which we use to modify the 3D morphology of a hexagonally close-packed polystyrene sphere array. Specifically, we combined an isotropic oxygen plasma (generated by a plasma cleaner) and a vertical temperature gradient applied from the bottom to the top of a colloidal mask to create an anisotropic etching process. As a result, an ordered array of well-defined and separated nano mushrooms is obtained. We demonstrate that the features of the mushrooms, namely the hat size and their intrinsic undercut, as well as the pillar diameter and height, can be easily tuned by adjusting the main parameters of the process i.e. the temperature gradient and etching time, or the spheres' size. We sh

SUBMITTER: Darvill D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9419189 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature