Fabrication of Nanoscale Topography

People: Isaac Omodia(myself), Dr. Kausik Das, Dr. Greg Doerk
Location: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL),  NY.

During this internship, I learnt how to create cylinder and lamellae nanoscale topography on silicon substrates using nanofabrication techniques including film deposition, annealing methods, etching, and molecular self assembly. I then characterized the nanoscale topography using a scanning electron microscope. The created samples are to be used in a future water harvesting research project.

For the neutral brush layer, hydroxyl terminated (PS-PMMA-OH) random copolymers, provided by the Dow Chemical Company, were used. The compositions of this brush ranged from 55 - 69 mol% Polystyrene. For the block copolymer (BCP) layer, polystyrene-polymethyl methacrylate block copolymers of various molecular weights(48 - 207 Kg/mol) were used. Some were cylinder-forming while the others formed lamellae.