Polymer nano-texturing and stochastic nano-patterning using plasma processing

Plasma processing induces roughening of polymers at the nanoscale, and forces one to abandon the idea of a flat surface, after processing, commonly used at the macro and micro scales. Plasma induced roughening of polymers may have detrimental effects when fabricating an electronic nano-device, or may have beneficial effects when it imparts anti-reflective or superhydrophobic properties on surfaces to mention only three examples. Thus, roughness should be reduced in some cases, while it should be maximized or controlled in others. Plasma induced polymer nano-roughness control may thus lead to new nano-manufacturing processes and products. This paper summarizes the recent finding of our group on plasma processing of both organic and inorganic (Silicon-containing) polymers.

A Helicon Plasma reactor is used for polymer plasma processing. Fractal theory based nanometrology protocol has been developed for the analysis of AFM images of the etched surfaces.(1+ 1) and (2+ 1) Monte Carlo Simulations are used for the explanation of observed behaviour.