Bottom-up fabrication of highly ordered metal nanostructures by hierarchical self-assembly

In a hierarchical nanopatterning routine relying exclusively on self-assembly processes we combine crystal surface reconstruction, microphase separation of copolymers, and selective metal diffusion to produce monodisperse metal nanostructures in highly regular arrays covering areas of square centimeters. In-situ GISAXS during Fe nanostructure formation evidences the outstanding structural order in the self-assembling system and hints at possibilities of sculpting nanostructures by external process parameters. Thus, we demonstrate that nanopatterning via self-assembly is a competitive alternative to lithography-based routines, achieving comparable pattern regularity, feature size, and patterned areas with considerably reduced effort. The option for in-situ investigations during pattern formation, the possibility of customizing the nanostructure morphology, the capacity to pattern arbitrarily large areas with ultra-high structure densities, and the potential of addressing the nanostructures individually enable numerous applications, e.g., in high-density magnetic data storage, in functional nanostructured materials, e.g., for photonics or catalysis, or in sensing based on surface plasmon resonances.