Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering of soft and hard nanofabricated gratings

Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) has been used to structurally characterize model hard and soft gratings of nanotechnological interest. The different gratings exhibit GISAXS patterns with characteristic features that can be associated with their level of order along the direction of periodicity and the length of the lines. Highly ordered gratings, made out of silicon by electron beam lithography, and those nanofabricated on spin-coated polymer films by nanoimprint lithography, exhibit characteristic semicircle-like GISAXS patterns with intensity spots periodically distributed on a semicircle whose radius is related to the incidence angle used. These gratings can be considered as one-dimensional crystalline lattices as provided by computer simulations. Less ordered polymer gratings prepared by the laser-induced periodic surface structuring method exhibit a GISAXS pattern characterized by periodic rod-like scattering maxima whose intensity decreases with increasing horizontal scattering angle. In this case the gratings can be considered as one-dimensional paracrystals. The transition from a rod-like to a semicircle-like GISAXS pattern has been simulated and attributed to the contribution of the form factor by changing the length of the line (ripple). A critical length value for the transition is located at around a few micrometres.

[1]  J. A. Pérez-Hernández,et al.  Ultraviolet and infrared femtosecond laser induced periodic surface structures on thin polymer films , 2012 .

[2]  M. Kuhlmann,et al.  Small-angle options of the upgraded ultrasmall-angle x-ray scattering beamline BW4 at HASYLAB , 2006 .

[3]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Soft lithography for micro- and nanoscale patterning , 2010, Nature Protocols.

[4]  M. Castillejo,et al.  Laser-induced periodic surface structures nanofabricated on poly(trimethylene terephthalate) spin-coated films. , 2012, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[5]  C. W. Hagen,et al.  Resists for sub-20-nm electron beam lithography with a focus on HSQ: state of the art , 2009, Nanotechnology.

[6]  D. Ivanov,et al.  A Novel View on Crystallization and Melting of Semirigid Chain Polymers: The Case of Poly(trimethylene terephthalate) , 2008 .

[7]  A. Nogales,et al.  Applications of synchrotron light to scattering and diffraction in materials and life sciences , 2009 .

[8]  T. Metzger,et al.  Nanometer surface gratings on Si(100) characterized by x-ray scattering under grazing incidence and atomic force microscopy , 1997 .

[9]  S. Botta,et al.  Grazing incidence wide angle x-ray scattering at the wiggler beamline BW4 of HASYLAB. , 2010, The Review of scientific instruments.

[10]  G. G. Stokes "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[11]  Y. Yoneda,et al.  Anomalous Surface Reflection of X Rays , 1963 .

[12]  A. Nogales,et al.  Structure and morphology of thin films of linear aliphatic polyesters prepared by spin-coating. , 2010, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[13]  B. L. Henke,et al.  X-Ray Interactions: Photoabsorption, Scattering, Transmission, and Reflection at E = 50-30,000 eV, Z = 1-92 , 1993 .

[14]  H. Schift Nanoimprint lithography: An old story in modern times? A review , 2008 .

[15]  Minhao Yan,et al.  On the intersection of grating truncation rods with the Ewald sphere studied by grazing‐incidence small‐angle X‐ray scattering , 2007 .

[16]  Peter Lindner,et al.  Neutrons, X-rays and light : scattering methods applied to soft condensed matter , 2002 .

[17]  Shuai Guo,et al.  In situ film characterization of thermally treated microstructured conducting polymer films , 2012 .

[18]  A. M. Hindeleh,et al.  Microparacrystals: The intermediate stage between crystalline and amorphous , 1991 .

[19]  C Gough,et al.  Introduction to Solid State Physics (6th edn) , 1986 .

[20]  G. Renaud,et al.  Probing surface and interface morphology with Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-Ray Scattering , 2009 .

[21]  G. Grübel,et al.  Correlation spectroscopy with coherent X-rays , 2004 .

[22]  Josep Samitier,et al.  Micro- and nanostructuring of poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalate) surfaces, for biomedical applications, using polymer replication techniques , 2005 .

[23]  A R Plummer,et al.  Introduction to Solid State Physics , 1967 .

[24]  M. Castillejo,et al.  Assessment and formation mechanism of laser-induced periodic surface structures on polymer spin-coated films in real and reciprocal space. , 2011, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[25]  M. Cecchini,et al.  High-resolution poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) hot embossing at low temperature: thermal, mechanical, and optical analysis of nanopatterned films. , 2008, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[26]  T. Baumbach,et al.  Grazing incidence diffraction by laterally patterned semiconductor nanostructures , 1999 .

[27]  L. J. Guo,et al.  Nanoimprint Lithography: Methods and Material Requirements , 2007 .

[28]  Stefan Luby,et al.  Coplanar and non-coplanar x-ray reflectivity characterization of lateral W/Si multilayer gratings , 2001 .

[29]  A. Nogales,et al.  Stacking of main chain-crown ether polymers in thin films. , 2007, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[30]  R. Lazzari,et al.  IsGISAXS: a program for grazing‐incidence small‐angle X‐ray scattering analysis of supported islands , 2002 .