Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
We report on the results for the diffusion coefficient (D*) of polystyrene (PS) chains near the PS/Silicon interface. The present study employs secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to examine diffusion from a deuterated marker layer in thin PS films on silicon. The observed SIMS depth profiles are fit to numerical simulations of the diffusion process. The best fit is obtained for a super-linear dependence of D* vs. distance from the silicon wall. A non-trivial time dependence extending over tens of hours is observed for all the models tested.