Understanding and engineering the self-assembly of soft colloidal particles (microgels) at liquid-liquid interfaces is broadening their use in colloidal lithography. Here, we present a new route to assemble rectangular lattices of microgels at near zero surface pressure relying on the balance between attractive quadrupolar capillary interactions and steric repulsion among the particles at water/oil interfaces. These self-assembled rectangular lattices are obtained for a broad range of particles and, after deposition, can be used as lithography masks to obtain regular arrays of vertically aligned nanowires via wet and dry etching processes.
@article{arxiv.2010.06302,
title = {Near-zero surface pressure assembly of rectangular lattices of microgels at fluid interfaces for colloidal lithography},
author = {Miguel Angel Fernandez-Rodriguez and Maria-Nefeli Antonopoulou and Lucio Isa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.06302},
year = {2020}
}