Ordered nanopore boring in silicon: Metal-assisted etching using a self-aligned block copolymer Au nanoparticle template and gravity accelerated etching

Metal-assisted etching into Si (1 0 0) surfaces can be performed in a highly defined and regular arrangement using self-organized patterns of single-size gold catalyst particles that are block polymer templated on Si surfaces. We show that small size catalyst particles (diameter ≈10 nm) can be forced to maintain straight etch tracks perpendicular to the surface using adequate centrifugal gravity force. This allows the creation of highly ordered uniform and synchronized pore boring into the substrate with single pore diameters in the 10 nm range.