Templated Oxide Synthesis on Self-Assembled PS-b-PMMA via Atomic Layer Deposition

Inorganic nanoarrays exhibit remarkable potential for applications in energy storage, photocatalysis, and electronics. However, methods for their direct fabrication remain limited. To address this challenge, we have developed a templated oxide synthesis (TOS) strategy using self-assembled polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) as templates. This approach enables the fabrication of a variety of inorganic oxide nanoarrays, and the process of Al₂O₃ is demonstrated in detail. The inorganics deposited by atomic layer deposition on the sidewalls of surface-activated PS after PMMA removal merge into dense arrays after removing the PS template by postannealing. The fabricated Al₂O₃ line arrays can be used as hard masks and can achieve exceptional line edge and width roughnesses of 1.6 and 1.3 nm, respectively. Furthermore, TiO₂, In₂O₃, ZnO, and HfO₂ nanoline and pillar arrays are successfully fabricated using this method. The versatility of TOS demonstrates its broad applicability for precision nanofabrication across a range of material systems.