Micropatterning of 2D colloidal crystals using area-selective immobilization of particles by laser beam irradiation onto azopolymer surface

Abstract

We proposed a technique which arranges particles in a regular two-dimensional array on an azopolymer surface, followed by immobilizing them in an arbitrary pattern on the surface, and studied its prospect. Azopolymer has the two properties of being able “to form a surface relief structure” and “to immobilize particles in the surface” by light irradiation. First, the former characteristic was used to form a periodic two-dimensional relief pattern template on an azopolymer surface by two-beam interference exposure, and the particles were arranged on the surface. Then the latter characteristic was used to selectively immobilize particles by light irradiation, and unimmobilized particles were removed by washing. As a result, we demonstrated that particles could be arranged in a regular two-dimensional array in a square structure and a hexagonal structure, and a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide structure could be easily fabricated by the micropatterning of particles. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 90(3): 1–8, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.20307