Fabrication of three-dimensional ordered nanodot array structures by a thermal dewetting method

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A new fabrication method for three-dimensional nanodot arrays with low cost and high throughput is developed in this paper. In this process, firstly a 2D nanodot array is fabricated by combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. A nanoplastic forming technique is utilized as the top-down approach to fabricate a groove grid pattern on an Au layer deposited on a substrate, and self-organization by thermal dewetting is employed as the bottom-up approach. On the first-layer nanodot array, SiO2 is deposited as a spacer layer. Au is then deposited on the spacer layer and thermal dewetting is conducted to fabricate a second-layer nanodot array. The effective parameters influencing dot formation on the second layer, including Au layer thickness and SiO2 layer thickness, are studied. It is demonstrated that a 3D nanodot array of good vertical alignment is obtained by repeating the SiO2 deposition, Au deposition and thermal dewetting. The mechanism of the dot agglomeration process is studied based on geometrical models. The effects of the spacer layer thickness and Au layer thickness on the morphology and alignment of the second-layer dots are discussed.