Submicrometer pattern fabrication by intensification of instability in ultrathin polymer films under a water–solvent mix

Abstract

Dewetting of ultrathin (<100 nm) polymer films, by heating above the glass transition, produces droplets of sizes of the order of micrometers and mean separations between droplets of the order of tens of micrometers. These relatively large length scales are because of the weak destabilizing van der Waals forces and the high surface energy penalty required for deformations on small scales. We show a simple, one-step versatile method to fabricate submicrometer (>∼100 nm) droplets and their ordered arrays by room temperature dewetting of ultrathin polystyrene (PS) films by minimizing these limitations. This is achieved by controlled room temperature dewetting under an optimal mixture of water, acetone, and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Diffusion of organic solvents in the film greatly reduces its glass transition temperature and the interfacial tension but enhances the destabilizing field by introduction of electrostatic force. The latter is reflected in a change in the exponent, n, of the instability length scale, λ∼hⁿ, where h is the film thickness and n = 1.51 ± 0.06 in the case of water–solvent mix, as opposed to its value of 2.19 ± 0.07 for dewetting in air. The net outcome is more than 1 order of magnitude reduction in the droplet size as well as their mean separation and also a much faster dynamics of dewetting. We also demonstrate the use of this technique for controlled dewetting on topographically patterned substrates with submicrometer features where dewetting in air is either arrested, incomplete, or unable to produce ordered patterns.