Mechanism for the formation of isolated poly(p-xylylene) fibrous structures under shadowing growth

Because of the low sticking coefficient, conventional parylene deposition is known to achieve the conformal coating on corrugated or patterned surfaces. However, recently, it has been shown that in contrary to the conformal coating, extremely nonconformal and isolated fibrous parylene structures can be formed on surfaces if it is deposited at an oblique angle using a directional flux. We demonstrate that directional flux can create a high local vapor pressure facing the flux, while the reflection of monomers because of a small sticking coefficient would generate a background vapor pressure. The parylene oblique angle deposition is a combination of the shadowing growth and a much slower conformal coating process, which together give rise to the isolated fibrous structure.