Interfacial width in polymer bilayer films prepared by double-spin-coating and flotation methods

A spin-coating method with the aid of selective solvents has been used to construct multilayer structures for organic devices under the assumption that the solvents do not invade a preformed structure. To confirm the assumption, we examined the interfacial width (?_i) of model polymer bilayers, composed of polystyrene and perdeuterated poly(methyl methacrylate), prepared by spin-coating and flotation methods. Neutron reflectivity measurements revealed that the ?_i value was larger for the spin-coating method than for the flotation method. These results cast doubt on the validity of the assumption. This knowledge should be kept in mind when this method is applied to construct multilayer structures.