Nanosphere lithography: A materials general fabrication process for periodic particle array surfaces

In this article nanosphere lithography (NSL) is demonstrated to be a materials general fabrication process for the production of periodic particle array (PPA) surfaces having nanometer scale features. A variety of PPA surfaces have been prepared using identical single-layer (SL) and double-layer (DL) NSL masks made by self-assembly of polymer nanospheres with diameter, D=264 nm, and varying both the substrate material S and the particle material M. In the examples shown here, S was an insulator, semiconductor, or metal and M was a metal, inorganic ionic insulator, or an organic π-electron semiconductor. PPA structural characterization and determination of nanoparticle metrics was accomplished with atomic force microscopy. This is the first demonstration of nanometer scale PPA surfaces formed from molecular materials.