Related papers: Substrate curvature governs texture orientation in…
Experimental data on thin films of cylinder-forming block copolymers (BC) -- free-standing BC membranes as well as supported BC films -- strongly suggest that the local orientation of the BC patterns is coupled to the geometry in which the…
We present several ordering mechanisms in diblock copolymers. For temperatures above the order-disorder temperature and in the weak segregation regime, a linear response theory is presented which gives the polymer density in the vicinity of…
We report molecular dynamics simulation results on the equilibrium properties of polymer thin films adsorbed onto flat and curved substrates. We first systematically determine the contact angle of polymer droplets on flat substrates as a…
We present numerical calculations of lamellar phases of block copolymers at patterned surfaces. We model symmetric di-block copolymer films forming lamellar phases and the effect of geometrical and chemical surface patterning on the…
Ordered phases on curved substrates experience a complex interplay of ordering and intrinsic curvature, commonly producing frustration and singularities. This is an especially important issue in crystals as ever-smaller scale materials are…
We explore the relative stability of three possible orientations of cylinder-forming di-block copolymer on a sinusoidally corrugated substrate. The cylinders can be aligned either parallel to the substrate, with their long axis being…
We present few ordering mechanisms in block copolymer melts in the coarse-graining approach. For chemically homogeneous or modulated confining surfaces, the surface ordering is investigated above and below the order-disorder temperature. In…
When thermal energies are weak, two dimensional lamellar structures confined on a curved substrate display complex patterns arising from the competition between layer bending and compression in the presence of geometric constraints. We…
Many systems in nature and the synthetic world involve ordered arrangements of units on two-dimensional surfaces. We review here the fundamental role payed by both the topology of the underlying surface and its detailed curvature. Topology…
We investigate the ordered morphologies occurring in thin-films diblock copolymer. For temperatures above the order-disorder transition and for an arbitrary two-dimensional surface pattern, we use a Ginzburg-Landau expansion of the free…
We study block copolymers (BCP) on patterned substrates, where the top polymer film surface is not constrained but is a free interface that adapts its shape self-consistently. In particular, we investigate the combined effect of the free…
We investigate the phase behavior of symmetric AB diblock copolymers confined into a thin film. The film boundaries are parallel, impenetrable and attract the A component of the diblock copolymer. Using a self-consistent field technique…
We numerically examine the two-dimensional ordering of a stripe forming system of particles with competing long-range repulsion and short-range attraction in the presence of a quasi-one-dimensional corrugated substrate. As a function of…
Block copolymers provide a wonderful platform in studying the soft condensed matter systems. Many fascinating ordered structures have been discovered in bulk and confined systems. Among various theories, the self-consistent field theory…
We investigate the effect of chemically patterned surfaces on the morphology of diblock copolymers below the order-disorder transition. Profiles for lamellar phases in contact with one surface, or confined between two surfaces are obtained…
Smooth and curved microstructural topologies found in nature - from soap films to trabecular bone - have inspired several mimetic design spaces for architected metamaterials and bio-scaffolds. However, the design approaches so far have been…
We investigate the morphology of diblock copolymers in the vicinity of flat, chemically patterned surfaces. Using a Ginzburg-Landau free energy, spatial variations of the order parameter are given in terms of a general two-dimensional…
The organization of nano-particles inside grafted polymer layers is governed by the interplay of polymer-induced entropic interactions and the action of externally applied fields. Earlier work had shown that strong external forces can drive…
We investigate theoretically the morphology of a thin nematic film adsorbed at flat substrate patterned by stripes with alternating aligning properties, normal and tangential respectively. We construct a simple "exactly-solvable" effective…
Sphere-patterned ultrathin block copolymers films are potentially interesting for a variety of applications in nanotechnology. We use self-consistent field theory to investigate the elastic response of sphere monolayer films with respect to…