Templated assembly of metal nanoparticle films on polymer substrates

Abstract

We report on directed self-assembly of ordered, vapor-deposited gallium nanoparticles on surface-relief-structured polymer substrates. Grating templates impose periodic order in one dimension, most effectively when the grating half-period is of the order of the mean unperturbed center-to-center particle spacing for a given mass-thickness of Ga. Self-organized order also emerges in the perpendicular direction as a consequence of the liquid-phase particles' nucleation, growth, and coalescence on the ridges of the grating pattern in relative isolation from the adjacent slots, and vice versa.