Synthesis and Characterization of Ordered Mesoporous Silica Films on Oxidized Silicon Substrates

摘要

The fabrication of advanced electronic devices that operate on quantum effects requires the patterning of semiconductors on the scale of 50 A, which cannot be achieved by any of the currently available patterning technologies. This project pursued a novel approach: the fabrication of a self-assembling template which would allow the deposition of ordered arrays of germanium dots on silicon substrates, on length scales permitting the operation of quantum devices at room temperature. The template is the mesoporous silicate MCM-41, discovered by researchers at Mobil Chemical Corp. This material consists of highly ordered, two-dimensional, hexagonal arrays of very uniform pores in silicon dioxide, with diameters tunable from 20 A to over 100 A. Mesoporous silica films were grown on oxidized silicon substrates by acidic synthesis. The substrates were first patterned by optical lithography to produce vertical features with dimensions of the order of microns. The substrates were then coated with hydrophobic polymer monolayers to alter their surface energy. This monolayer was selectively removed from the horizontal surfaces of some of the substrates, leaving it only on the vertical surfaces of the patterned features. It was thought that the difference in surface energy between horizontal and vertical surfaces would induce the pores to align along the vertical surfaces.