Patterning of gold–polydimethylsiloxane (Au–PDMS) nanocomposites by supersonic cluster beam implantation

Patterned gold–polydimethylsiloxane (Au–PDMS) nanocomposites were fabricated by supersonic cluster beam implantation (SCBI) of neutral gold nanoparticles in PDMS through stencil masks. The influence of nanoparticle dose on the surface roughness and morphology of the micropatterned regions of the nanocomposite was characterized. Nanoparticle implantation causes the swelling of PDMS without affecting substantially the lateral resolution of the patterns. In order to have an insight on the mechanism and the influence of nanoparticle implantation on the polymeric matrix, large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of the implantation process have been performed. The simulations show that even a single cluster impact on PDMS substrate strongly affects the polymer local temperature and density. Our results show that SCBI is a promising methodology for the efficient fabrication of nanocomposite microstructures on polymers with interesting morphological, structural and functional properties.