title: Ultraflat templated polymer surfaces.
abstract: The roughness of spin-cast polymer films arises from thermally activated capillary waves during preparation and typically amounts to about 0.5 nm(rms) measured on a micrometer-sized surface area. Templating from atomically flat mica substrates allows the creation of polymer films with a surface roughness approaching the molecular scale. Three regimes of spatial frequencies are identified in which the roughness is controlled by different physical mechanisms. We find that frozen-in elastic pressure waves ultimately limit the flatness of polymer films.
authors.affiliation: IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Saumerstrass 4, 8803 Ruschlikon, Switzerland.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pires
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gotsmann
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Porro
authors.forename: Dorothea
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wiesmann
authors.forename: Urs
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Duerig
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knoll