Reprint of “Overhanging ferroelectric nanodot arrays created by high surface energy seeds”

We demonstrated a facile route for the fabrication of overhanging PbTiO3 (PTO) nanodot arrays on platinized silicon substrates using PbO vapor phase reaction sputtering on micellar monolayer films of polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) loaded with TiO2 sol-gel precursor. We also investigated that the high surface energy of TiO2 contributes to the formation of overhanging ferroelectric PTO nanodot arrays by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, the crystallographic orientation of the nanoseeds had a significant influence on the ferroelectric switching properties of the PTO nanodots, which were determined by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM).