Curvature as a Guiding Field for Patterns in Thin Block Copolymer Films

Abstract

Experimental data on thin films of cylinder-forming block copolymers (BC)—free-standing BCmembranes as well as supported BC films—strongly suggest that the local orientation of the BC patternsis coupled to the geometry in which the patterns are embedded. We analyze this phenomenon using generalsymmetry considerations and numerical self-consistent field studies of curved BC films in cylindricalgeometry. The stability of the films against curvature-induced dewetting is also analyzed. In goodagreement with experiments, we find that the BC cylinders tend to align along the direction of curvature athigh curvatures. At low curvatures, we identify a transition from perpendicular to parallel alignment insupported films, which is absent in free-standing membranes. Hence both experiments and theory show thatcurvature can be used to manipulate and align BC patterns.