(Invited) Pattern Generation from the Irradiation Induced Crosslinking of Organic Monolayers Coupled with an Area Selective Deposition

Abstract

Responsive materials drive the controllable generation of nanoscale patterns and have broad reaching applications in computation and sensing, for instance. As technology platforms broaden and the demand for ever smaller critical dimensions increase chemical control over surfaces then become more important. Current approaches to nanoscale fabrication largely rely on subtractive processes, which often alters the chemical composition of a surface (such as oxidation) or damage materials by amorphizing the sidewalls of an otherwise crystalline thin film, from processes like reactive ion etching or solution-based chemical etches. As miniaturization reaches single nanometer regimes, surfaces and interfaces become increasingly significant and can dominate the performance of a final device. An alternative patterning strategy where a film is ‘added’ in a selected area, versus ‘subtracted’ presents a method to grow components of a device without damage to surfaces or interfaces. This approach is demonstrated with a responsive monolayer, where a pattern-wise exposure crosslinks the film to produce a selective barrier guiding film formation and growth of a metal oxide in a subsequent deposition step. This combination of a responsive monolayer with an area selective deposition was used to achieve high fidelity patterns with features as small as 50 nm.