image: This figure shows a schematic (top) of the laser annealing process used to generate nanostructured single crystal thin films with a defined growth relation ("epitaxy") to the substrate (grey) using a self-assembled nanostructured template (yellow). Through short laser pulses of the melt laser a transient melt is generated (melt duration of only tens of nanoseconds) which fills the pores of the template and subsequently crystallizes from the substrate upwards, thus reproducing the nanostructure of the template in the form of a single crystal. Removal of the template reveals the nanostructure (nanostructured pillars). The atomic force microscopy images at the bottom show the surface topography of (from left to right) the porous template, as well as resulting smaller and taller pillars from two different experiments. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Oct. 8, 2010, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Hitesh Arora of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and Intel Corporation in Chandler, Ariz., and colleagues was titled, "Block Copolymer Self-Assembly–Directed Single-Crystal Homo- and Heteroepitaxial Nanostructures." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Uli Wiesner, Cornell University