Nanoscale Interfacial Engineering for Flexible Barrier Films

Alternating layers of organic and oxide thin films used as diffusion barriers in emerging flexible device technologies are vulnerable to degradation under the influence of mechanical stresses, temperature cycling, photodegradation, and chemically active environmental species. Delamination of the internal organic to oxide interfaces often limits the operational lifetime of the barrier system. We demonstrate a method for increasing the adhesion of organic and oxide thin films by generating nanostructures at the interface. We show that the adhesion of an acrylate to silicon oxide model system can be increased by up to an order of magnitude (from ∼2 J/m(2) to 24 J/m(2)). By altering the diameter and depth of the patterns in the model systems, the adhesion energy can be changed, and the delamination pathway can be controlled. In addition, we show that a patterned interface maintains a higher adhesion than its planar counterpart for all durations of UV-A and UV-B exposure.