Fluctuation-Induced Line-Edge Roughness in Nano-Confined Block Copolymer Thin Films

Block copolymer (BCP) thin film systems are currently under intense scrutiny as a potential nano-scale fabrication mask for pattering next-generation semi-conductors and magnetic media on the $5$ to $20$ nm scale. However, there are certain fundamental issues that need to be resolved, or at least well understood, if BCP systems are going to evolve into a feasible fabrication tool, most notable of which is the scale and system-parameter-dependence of microdomain--matrix-interface line-edge roughness (LER). We present a computational study of microdomain--matrix-interface LER for a nano-confined $AB$ diblock copolymer thin film. The BCP system was simulated using a field-theoretic sampling technique based on a ``hybrid'' mean-field--Monte Carlo framework. We present a summary of our simulation technique, and we examine the dependence of LER on the Flory $\chi$ parameter and the copolymer molecular weight.