Fabrication of regularly arranged nanocolumns on diamond(100) using micellar masks

Cylindrical diamond columns of 15 nm height and 10 nm diameter have been pr epared on a diamond(100) substrate by exploiting the self-organization of m etal-loaded diblock copolymers. For this purpose, chemomechanically polishe d substrates of synthetic (high pressure high temperature) diamond exhibiti ng extremely low roughness (typical root-mean-square roughness 60 pm) were covered by a monolayer of gold-loaded inverse polystyrene-block-poly(2-viny lpyridine) micelles which self-organize in an hexagonal order on the substr ate. After burning off the blockcopolymer in an oxygen plasma, the resultin g Au nanoparticles act as a mask during further etching the diamond substra te in this plasma. As a result, Au-capped diamond columns are formed with a n approximate size of the former gold particles. After removing the Au caps by evaporation at 1100 degrees C in ultrahigh vacuum, an array of diamond nanocolumns is obtained. As a consequence of this preparation process, the columns form an hexagonal lattice with a separation of 85 nm reflecting the arrangement of the self-organized micelles. The successive states of sampl e preparation were characterized by atomic force microscopy, Rutherford bac kscattering, and in situ scanning tunneling microscopy. (C) 2000 American I nstitute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)02510-4].