Chemically tailored block copolymers for highly reliable sub-10-nm patterns by directed self-assembly

While block copolymer (BCP) lithography is theoretically capable of printing features smaller than 10 nm, developing practical BCPs for this purpose remains challenging. Herein, we report the creation of a chemically tailored, highly reliable, and practically applicable block copolymer and sub-10-nm line patterns by directed self-assembly. Polystyrene-block-[poly(glycidyl methacrylate)-random-poly(methyl methacrylate)] (PS-b-(PGMA-r-PMMA) or PS-b-PGM), which is based on PS-b-PMMA with an appropriate amount of introduced PGMA (10–33 mol%) is quantitatively post-functionalized with thiols. The use of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanethiol leads to polymers (PS-b-PGFMs) with Flory–Huggins interaction parameters (χ) that are 3.5–4.6-times higher than that of PS-b-PMMA and well-defined higher-order structures with domain spacings of less than 20 nm. This study leads to the smallest perpendicular lamellar domain size of 12.3 nm. Furthermore, thin-film lamellar domain alignment and vertical orientation are highly reliably and reproducibly obtained by directed self-assembly to yield line patterns that correspond to a 7.6 nm half-pitch size.