Controlling the Orientation of Cylinder Forming Block Co-Polymers

Block copolymers have been heavily studied because of their self-assembly characteristics. When heated these copolymers spontaneously form varying structures, depending on the length of the polymer chain. My project involves cylinder forming block co-polymers made up of polystyrene and polyvinyl pyridine. I annealed a 30 nanometers thick film of this copolymer, floated onto a pattern silicon substrate, at 180 C for a three day period in order to understand the kinetics and mechanisms by which these cylinders align themselves with the pattern on a substrate. The instrument that I use to look at this sample was the atomic force microscope, which gives a topographical image of the sample surface. The goal of this research project is to be able to force the structured formed by these co-polymers to align themselves with the pattern substrate.