Fabrication of gold nanowires in micropatterns using block copolymers

Abstract

In this work, we introduce a facile method for fabricating well-aligned gold nanowires in a desired microstructure by combining the shear alignment of block copolymer (BCP) cylinders with a conventional lithography process. The aligned line patterns in a long-range order were firstly created with the shear alignment of cylinder-forming polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) thin films; then, gold was loaded to create metal nanowires. We directly employed photolithography on the nanopatterns, which simplified many fabrication steps. Furthermore, the combination of BCP assembly and photolithography allows for the independent control of nanopatterns and micropatterns, providing an opportunity to increase the nanopatterns' versatility.