News

Abstract:

By combining confinement effects with the highly directional field inherent in solvent evaporation and the mobility imparted to the BCP by the solvent, perfectly registered arrays of hexagonally packed block copolymer microdomains were produced on surfaces at least 3x3 cm2 in area with areal densities in excess of 10 terabit/inch2.  Registry of the arrays and the perfection of the ordering over macroscopic distances were demonstrated by grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering and scanning force microscopy. This approach circumvents registry constraints and excessive writing times inherent in e-beam lithographic processes over macroscopic length scales and presents a simple route to addressable patterned media.

Bio:

Thomas P. Russell, the Silvio O. Conte Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering, received his PhD in 1979 in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was a Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA (1981-96) and became a Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1997). His research interests include the surface and interfacial properties of polymers, phase transitions in polymers, directed self-assembly processes, the use of polymers as scaffolds and templates for the generation of nanoscopic structures, the interfacial assembly of nanoparticles, the influence of supercritical fluids on phase transitions and dynamics in polymer thin films, and wrinkling and crumpling behavior of thin polymer films. He is the Director of the Energy Frontier Research Center on Polymer-Based Materials for Harvesting Solar Energy, and an Associate Editor of Macromolecules. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Neutron Scattering Society of America, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.