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Templated Nanomaterials
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Nanomaterials may be fabricated on a surface by filling in a template prepared, for example, by
electron beam lithography or
block copolymer
self-assembly. A mask is fabricated, then
reversed by filling the nanoscale open areas with the material of interest. Filling can be accomplished
by conventional deposition methods such as evaporation or sputtering, but also by solution phase
deposition which takes advantage of capillary action. First, a precursor is synthesized which decomposes
to the material of interest at a temperature compatible with the template. The precursor is dissolved,
deposited in the template, then decomposed to yield a surface-bound nanomaterial. For example, block
copolymer templates have been filled to produce nanodot patterns of phase change materials (see figure below).
These materials form the basis for a new kind of
nonvolatile memory device.
Scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope images of solution deposited (a and b) and sputtered (c) phase change nanodots templated using block copolymers
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