Block copolymer self-assembly assisted fabrication of laterally organized- and stacked- nanoarrays

Block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly processes are often seen as reliable techniques for advanced nanopatterning to achieve functional surfaces and create templates for nanofabrication. By taking advantage of the tunability in pitch, diameter and feature-to-feature separation of the self-assembled BCP features, complex, laterally organized- and stacked- multicomponent nanoarrays comprising of gold and polymer have been fabricated. The approaches not only demonstrate nanopatterning of up to two levels of hierarchy but also investigate how a variation in the feature-to-feature gap at the first hierarchy affects the self-assembly of polymer features at the second. Such BCP self-assembly enabled multicomponent nanoarray configurations are rarely achieved by other nanofabrication approaches and are particularly promising for pushing the boundaries of block copolymer lithography and in creating unique surface architectures and complex morphologies at the nanoscale.

Nano-patterning on multilayer MoS2 via block copolymer lithography for highly sensitive and responsive phototransistors

Indirect bandgap of multilayer molybdenum disulfide has been recognized as a major hindrance to high responsivity of MoS2 phototransistors. Here, to overcome this fundamental limitation, we propose a structural engineering of MoS2 via nano-patterning using block copolymer lithography. The fabricated nanoporous MoS2, consisting of periodic hexagonal arrays of hexagon nanoholes, includes abundant edges having a zigzag configuration of atomic columns with molybdenum and sulfur atoms. These exposed zigzag edges are responsible for multiple trap states in the bandgap region, as confirmed by photo-excited charge-collection spectroscopy measurements on multilayer nanoporous MoS2 phototransistors, showing that in-gap states only near the valence band can result in a photogating effect. The effect of nano-patterning is therefore to significantly enhance the responsivity of multilayer nanoporous MoS2 phototransistors, exhibiting an ultra-high photoresponsivity of 622.2 A W−1. Our nano-patterning of MoS2 for photosensing application paves a route to structural engineering of two-dimensional materials for highly sensitive and responsive optoelectronic devices.

Optical Properties of Site-Selectively Grown InAs/InP Quantum Dots with Predefined Positioning by Block Copolymer Lithography

The InAs/InP quantum dots (QDs) are investigated by time-integrated (PL) and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) experiments. The QDs are fabricated site-selectively by droplet epitaxy technique using block copolymer lithography. The estimated QDs surface density is ∼1.5 × 1010 cm−2. The PL emission at T=300 K is centered at 1.5 μm. Below T=250 K, the PL spectrum shows a fine structure consisting of emission modes attributed to the multimodal QDs size distribution. Temperature-dependent PL reveals negligible carrier transfer among QDs, suggesting good carrier confinement confirmed by theoretical calculations and the TRPL experiment. The PL intensity quench and related energies imply the presence of carrier losses among InP barrier states before carrier capture by QD states. The TRPL experiment highlighted the role of the carrier reservoir in InP. The elongation of PL rise time with temperature imply inefficient carrier capture from the reservoir to QDs. The TRPL experiment at T=15 K reveals the existence of two PL decay components with strong dispersion across the emission spectrum. The decay times dispersion is attributed to different electron-hole confinement regimes for the studied QDs within their broad distribution affected by the size and chemical content inhomogeneities.