Direct imprinting of high resolution TiO(2) nanostructures

Nanoimprint lithography for high-throughput fabrication of metasurfaces

Metasurfaces are composed of periodic sub-wavelength nanostructures and exhibit optical properties that are not found in nature. They have been widely investigated for optical applications such as holograms, wavefront shaping, and structural color printing, however, electron-beam lithography is not suitable to produce large-area metasurfaces because of the high fabrication cost and low productivity. Although alternative optical technologies, such as holographic lithography and plasmonic lithography, can overcome these drawbacks, such methods are still constrained by the optical diffraction limit. To break through this fundamental problem, mechanical nanopatterning processes have been actively studied in many fields, with nanoimprint lithography (NIL) coming to the forefront. Since NIL replicates the nanopattern of the mold regardless of the diffraction limit, NIL can achieve sufficiently high productivity and patterning resolution, giving rise to an explosive development in the fabrication of metasurfaces. In this review, we focus on various NIL technologies for the manufacturing of metasurfaces. First, we briefly describe conventional NIL and then present various NIL methods for the scalable fabrication of metasurfaces. We also discuss recent applications of NIL in the realization of metasurfaces. Finally, we conclude with an outlook on each method and suggest perspectives for future research on the high-throughput fabrication of active metasurfaces.

Oxygen insensitive thiol-ene photo-click chemistry for direct imprint lithography of oxides

UV-nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) is a promising technique for direct fabrication of functional oxide nanostructures. Since it is mostly carried out in aerobic conditions, the free radical polymerization during imprinting is retarded due to the radical scavenging ability of oxygen. Therefore, it is highly desirable to have an oxygen-insensitive photo-curable resin that not only alleviates the requirement of inert conditions but also enables patterning without making substantial changes in the process. Here we demonstrate the formulation of metal-containing resins that employ oxygen-insensitive thiol-ene photo-click chemistry. Allyl acetoacetate (AAAc) has been used as a bifunctional monomer that, on one hand, chelates with the metal ion, and on the other hand, offers a reactive alkene group for polymerization. Pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate) (PETMP), a four-arm thiol derivative, is used as a crosslinker as well as an active component in the thiol-ene photo-click chemistry. The FT-IR analyses on the metal-free and metal-containing resin formulations revealed that the optimum ratio of alkene to thiol is 1 : 0.5 for an efficient photo-click chemistry. The thiol-ene photo-click chemistry has been successfully demonstrated for direct imprinting of oxides by employing TiO2 and Ta2O5 as candidate systems. The imprinted films of metal-containing resins were subjected to calcination to obtain the corresponding patterned metal oxides. This technique can potentially be expanded to other oxide systems as well.

Nanoimprinted High-Refractive Index Active Photonic Nanostructures Based on Quantum Dots for Visible Light

A novel method to realizing printed active photonic devices was developed using nanoimprint lithography (NIL), combining a printable high-refractive index material and colloidal CdSe/CdS quantum dots (QDs) for applications in the visible region. Active media QDs were applied in two different ways: embedded inside a printable high-refractive index matrix to form an active printable hybrid nanocomposite, and used as a uniform coating on top of printed photonic devices. As a proof-of-demonstration for printed active photonic devices, two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystals as well as 1D and 2D photonic nanocavities were successfully fabricated following a simple reverse-nanoimprint process. We observed enhanced photoluminescence from the 2D photonic crystal and the 1D nanocavities. Outstandingly, the process presented in this study is fully compatible with large-scale manufacturing where the patterning areas are only limited by the size of the corresponding mold. This work shows that the integration of active media and functional materials is a promising approach to the realization of integrated photonics for visible light using high throughput technologies. We believe that this work represents a powerful and cost-effective route for the development of numerous nanophotonic structures and devices that will lead to the emergence of new applications.

Extreme ultraviolet resist materials for sub-7 nm patterning

Continuous ongoing development of dense integrated circuits requires significant advancements in nanoscale patterning technology.

Solubility studies of inorganic-organic hybrid nanoparticle photoresists with different surface functional groups

The solubility behavior of Hf and Zr based hybrid nanoparticles with different surface ligands in different concentrations of photoacid generator as potential EUV photoresists was investigated in detail. The nanoparticles regardless of core or ligand chemistry have a hydrodynamic diameter of 2-3 nm and a very narrow size distribution in organic solvents. The Hansen solubility parameters for nanoparticles functionalized with IBA and 2MBA have the highest contribution from the dispersion interaction than those with tDMA and MAA, which show more polar character. The nanoparticles functionalized with unsaturated surface ligands showed more apparent solubility changes after exposure to DUV than those with saturated ones. The solubility differences after exposure are more pronounced for films containing a higher amount of photoacid generator. The work reported here provides material selection criteria and processing strategies for the design of high performance EUV photoresists.

Large area sub-100 nm direct nanoimprinting of palladium nanostructures

We demonstrate a simple direct nanoimprinting method for fabricating palladium nanostructures that involves in situ free radical polymerization of a resin consisting of an acrylate-based crosslinker and a palladium metal precursor.

Metal hierarchical patterning by direct nanoimprint lithography

Three-dimensional hierarchical patterning of metals is of paramount importance in diverse fields involving photonics, controlling surface wettability and wearable electronics. Conventionally, this type of structuring is tedious and usually involves layer-by-layer lithographic patterning. Here, we describe a simple process of direct nanoimprint lithography using palladium benzylthiolate, a versatile metal-organic ink, which not only leads to the formation of hierarchical patterns but also is amenable to layer-by-layer stacking of the metal over large areas. The key to achieving such multi-faceted patterning is hysteretic melting of ink, enabling its shaping. It undergoes transformation to metallic palladium under gentle thermal conditions without affecting the integrity of the hierarchical patterns on micro- as well as nanoscale. A metallic rice leaf structure showing anisotropic wetting behavior and woodpile-like structures were thus fabricated. Furthermore, this method is extendable for transferring imprinted structures to a flexible substrate to make them robust enough to sustain numerous bending cycles.

Direct patterning of TiO₂ using step-and-flash imprint lithography

Although step-and-flash imprint lithography, or S-FIL, has brought about tremendous advancement in wafer-scale fabrication of sub-100 nm features of photopolymerizable organic and organo-silicon-based resists, it has not been successful in direct patterning of inorganic materials such as oxides because of the difficulties associated with resist formulation and its dispensing. In this paper, we demonstrate the proof-of-concept S-FIL of titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) carried by an acrylate-based formulation containing an allyl-functionalized titanium complex. The prepolymer formulation contains 48 wt % metal precursor, but it exhibits low enough viscosity (∼5 mPa·s) to be dispensed by an automatic dispensing system, adheres and spreads well on the substrate, is insensitive to pattern density variations, and rapidly polymerizes when exposed to broadband UV radiation to give a yield close to 95%. Five fields, each measuring 1 cm × 1 cm, consisting of 100 nm gratings were successively imprinted. Heat-treatment of the patterned structures at 450 °C resulted in the loss of organics and their subsequent shrinkage without the loss of integrity or aspect ratio and converted them to TiO(2) anatase nanostructures as small as 30 nm wide. With this approach, wafer-scale direct patterning of functional oxides on a sub-100 nm scale using S-FIL can become a distinct possibility.

Role of propagating modes in a double-groove grating with a +1st-order diffraction angle larger than the substrate-air critical angle

Here we show, analytically and numerically, that in a TiO(2) double-groove grating with two different groove widths per period attached on the SiO(2) substrate, the normally incident light couples to the +1st-order transmission with 96.9% efficiency and with a 50° diffraction angle that is larger than the SiO(2)-air interface critical angle. Modal analysis reveals that three propagating modes for the +1st diffraction order reach the grating back end in phase, while the corresponding propagating modes for the -1st and zeroth orders are added destructively at the grating end. Four optical devices based on this grating characteristic are numerically demonstrated.