Fabrication of diverse metallic nanowire arrays based on block copolymer self-assembly

Metallic nanowires are useful for fabricating highly integrated nanoscale electrical, magnetic, and photonic devices. However, conventional methods based on bottom-up growth techniques are subject to concerns such as broad distributions in their dimension as well and difficulties in precise placement of the nanowires. These issues can be solved by the guided self-assembly of block copolymer thin films that can produce periodic arrays of monodisperse nanoscale features with excellent positional accuracy. Here, we report transfer of high-quality linear block copolymer patterns into various metals, Ti, W, Pt, Co, Ni, Ta, Au, and Al, to fabricate highly ordered nanowire arrays with widths down to 9 nm. This novel patterning process does not require specific film deposition techniques or etch-chemistries. We also describe their structural, magnetic, and electrical properties.