Growth and morphological analysis of ultra thin PMMA films prepared by Langmuir-Blodgett deposition technique

The growth of PMMA [poly (methyl methacrylate)] thin film structure containing sequential depositions through Langmuir-Blodgett technique was investigated using X-ray reflectometry and atomic force microscopy. The thickness of the films as obtained from reflectivity studies shows an almost linear variation with number of strokes. The roughness of the film was also found to be increased with increasing the thickness. However, even for the highest thickness of 22.6 nm, surface roughness is found only 1.0 nm. Further, influence of the film thickness on the apparent surface morphology has been studied using AFM. The surface topography of PMMA films revealed that the entire surface is covered with spherical micelles that evenly distributed upto some ranges. The current study showed that quite uniform ultrathin films of PMMA can be prepared using LB technique. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.