Estimation of effects of thermal fluctuations in graphoepitaxy DSA of cylinder-forming block copolymers

The effects of thermal fluctuations in graphoepitaxy DSA are studied using simulations based on the self-consistent field theory (SCFT) model. The known method of using an external potential field to displace or deform the DSA cylinder is employed to study the dependencies of the fluctuations of the position and the size of the DSA cylinder as a function of the confinement well diameter. An explanation to local minima of these dependencies is proposed. A new and faster method to estimate the effects of fluctuations in DSA based on a family of transformations of SCFT potential fields is described and tested.