Mengjun Bai et al 2006 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 18 7383 doi:10.1088/0953-8984/18/31/030
Mengjun Bai1, Matt Poulsen and Stephen Ducharme
Show affiliationsWe report the results of studies of the effects of annealing conditions on the morphology of ferroelectric nanomesas. The nanomesa patterns were fabricated by self-assembly from continuous ultra-thin Langmuir–Blodgett films of copolymers of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene. Annealing in the paraelectric phase induced surface reorganization into disc-shaped ferroelectric nanomesas approximately 9 nm thick and 100 nm in diameter. Several factors affect the nanomesa dimensions, such as polymer composition, substrate material, deposition conditions, and annealing temperature. The height and diameter of the nanomesas both increase with increasing annealing temperature. Annealing studies in the ferroelectric–paraelectric coexistence region show that only the paraelectric phase is mobile. From this we conclude that the paraelectric phase supports a kind of plastic crystalline flow connected with dynamic disorder of the polymer conformation.
68.47.Pe Langmuir-Blodgett films on solids; polymers on surfaces; biological molecules on surfaces
68.55.-a Thin film structure and morphology
81.16.Rf Nanoscale pattern formation
Soft matter, liquids and polymers
Surfaces, interfaces and thin films
Issue 31 (9 August 2006)
Received 23 January 2006, in final form 20 June 2006
Published 21 July 2006
Mengjun Bai et al 2006 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 18 7383
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