From a Single Micropatterned Elastic Membrane to a Library of Complex Patterns of Nanostructures: an Efficient Nanomanufacturing Route via Harnessing of Elastic Instability

本提案旨在开发一种新的纳米制造途径，利用弹性不稳定效应，这种效应经常出现在植物、动物条纹和指纹的层状生长中，以创建一个具有非常高水平结构完美和可变晶格对称性的纳米级复杂图案库。通过比较理论预测和实验观察，将开发出稳健和通用的规则，这将允许对复杂结构的演变进行编程，同时保持所提出的纳米制造技术的完整性和自上而下的性质。pi计划：1)准备一个具有任意特征尺寸和几何形状的微观孔阵列的聚（二甲基硅氧烷）膜库，用于模式转换；2)研究控制膨胀网络不稳定性的因素，并探索将特征尺寸减小到10纳米以下的范围；3)利用印迹纳米颗粒组件的独特地形来制造纳米结构。这项拟议的研究具有变革性，因为它试图将软材料的弱点，即其机械不稳定性，转变为优势，允许在微纳米尺度制造中设计新的工具和程序，创造具有各向异性磁，光子，声子和等离子体特性的动态可调结构，有利于一系列科学和技术。提出的活动范围从材料工程到软物质物理，并为柔性物质的固体力学引入了一个新的范例。这个交叉点为招收和培训学生创造了一个重要的机会，并激发了公众对纳米技术的兴趣。

This proposal seeks to develop a novel nanofabrication route that exploits an elastic instability effect, which is often seen from the phyllotactic growth of plants, animal stripes, and fingerprints, to create a library of complex patterns at the nanoscale with a very high level of structural perfection and variable lattice symmetry. By comparing the theoretical prediction and experimental observations, robust and generic rules will be developed, which will allow programming the evolution of complex structures while maintaining the integrity and top-down nature of the proposed nanofabrication technique. The PIs plan to: 1) prepare a library of poly(dimethylsiloxane) membranes with microscopic hole arrays of arbitrary feature size and geometry for pattern transformation, 2) investigate the factors that control the instability in a swollen network and explore feature size reduction to the sub-10 nm regime, 3) and capitalize on the unique topography of the imprinted nanoparticle assemblies for fabrication of nanostructures. This proposed research is transformative in that it seeks to turn a perceived weakness of soft materials, i.e. their mechanical instability, into a strength, allowing the design of new tools and procedures in micro- and nano-scale manufacturing, creating dynamically tunable structures with anisotropic magnetic, photonic, phononic, and plasmonic properties of benefit to a range of science and technologies. The proposed activity ranges in scope from materials engineering to soft matter physics and introduces a new paradigm for the solid mechanics of flexible matter. This intersection creates a significant opportunity to recruit and train students, and excite the general public about nanotechnology.