Tunable Multilayers of Self-Organized Silica Nanospheres by Spin Coating

Abstract

The coating of fused silica by an organized layer of silica nanospheres (NS) is an important issue for the design of optical and topographic properties especially for lithography techniques such as nanosphere lithography (NSL) or nanosphere photolithography (NSPL). Here, the spin coating of NS dispersed in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) is studied. The role of the NS diameter, the spin-coating acceleration, and the volume fraction are the parameters to take into account for the formation and organization of NS in single or double closely packed layers. We propose an explanation for this behavior based on the transition between sedimentation and a viscous regime on the basis of the silica NS organization.