SURFACE-INDUCED LAMELLAR ORDERING IN A HEXAGONAL PHASE OF DIBLOCK COPOLYMERS

We study theoretically the hexagonal phase of diblock copolymer melts and determine the conditions under which a region of lamellar ordering is induced near a flat surface. In the weak segregation limit we empl oy a Landau-Ginzburg mean-field theory to describe the interfacial str ucture of the ordered hexagonal phase. The surface field, proportional to the differential affinity of blocks A and B to the surface, couple s to the wave component perpendicular to the interface and increases t he lamellar character of the ordered structure close to the surface. T he extent of the region where this lamellar character predominates div erges logarithmically when the hulk hexagonal-lamellar transition is a pproached. In the strong segregation limit we find that the lamellar r egion exists provided that the surface field is larger than some criti cal value, readily obtainable in experiments. We find that the extent of the region of lamellar ordering also increases logarithmically with decreasing free energy difference between the hexagonal and lamellar phases.