Plasma directed assembly and organization:bottom-up nanopatterning using top-down technology

Fabrication of periodic nanodot or nanocolumn arrays on surfaces is performed by top-down lithographic procedures or bottom-up self-assembly methods, which both make use of plasma etching to transfer the periodic pattern. Could plasma etching alone act as an assembly–organization method to create the pattern and then transfer it to the substrate? We present data that support this idea and propose a mechanism of periodicity formation where etching and simultaneous deposition take place