TY - JOUR
T1 - Fabrication of polymer nanowires via maskless O2 plasma etching
AU - Du, Ke
AU - Wathuthanthri, Ishan
AU - Liu, Yuyang
AU - Kang, Yong Tae
AU - Choi, Chang Hwan
PY - 2014/4/25
Y1 - 2014/4/25
N2 - In this paper, we introduce a simple fabrication technique which can pattern high-aspect-ratio polymer nanowire structures of photoresist films by using a maskless one-step oxygen plasma etching process. When carbon-based photoresist materials on silicon substrates are etched by oxygen plasma in a metallic etching chamber, nanoparticles such as antimony, aluminum, fluorine, silicon or their compound materials are self-generated and densely occupy the photoresist polymer surface. Such self-masking effects result in the formation of high-aspect-ratio vertical nanowire arrays of the polymer in the reactive ion etching mode without the necessity of any artificial etch mask. Nanowires fabricated by this technique have a diameter of less than 50 nm and an aspect ratio greater than 20. When such nanowires are fabricated on lithographically pre-patterned photoresist films, hierarchical and hybrid nanostructures of polymer are also conveniently attained. This simple and high-throughput fabrication technique for polymer nanostructures should pave the way to a wide range of applications such as in sensors, energy storage, optical devices and microfluidics systems.
AB - In this paper, we introduce a simple fabrication technique which can pattern high-aspect-ratio polymer nanowire structures of photoresist films by using a maskless one-step oxygen plasma etching process. When carbon-based photoresist materials on silicon substrates are etched by oxygen plasma in a metallic etching chamber, nanoparticles such as antimony, aluminum, fluorine, silicon or their compound materials are self-generated and densely occupy the photoresist polymer surface. Such self-masking effects result in the formation of high-aspect-ratio vertical nanowire arrays of the polymer in the reactive ion etching mode without the necessity of any artificial etch mask. Nanowires fabricated by this technique have a diameter of less than 50 nm and an aspect ratio greater than 20. When such nanowires are fabricated on lithographically pre-patterned photoresist films, hierarchical and hybrid nanostructures of polymer are also conveniently attained. This simple and high-throughput fabrication technique for polymer nanostructures should pave the way to a wide range of applications such as in sensors, energy storage, optical devices and microfluidics systems.
KW - hierarchical nanostructures
KW - interference lithography
KW - plasma etching
KW - polymer nanowires
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84897472658&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84897472658&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/0957-4484/25/16/165301
DO - 10.1088/0957-4484/25/16/165301
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84897472658
SN - 0957-4484
VL - 25
JO - Nanotechnology
JF - Nanotechnology
IS - 16
M1 - 165301
ER -