Plasmonic lithography for fabricating nanoimprint masters with multi-scale patterns

Abstract

We successfully demonstrate the practical application of plasmonic lithography to fabricate nanoimprint masters. Using the properties of a non-propagating near-field, we achieve high-speed multi-scale patterning with different exposure time during the scanning. We modulate the width of the line patterns using a pulse light source with different duty cycles during the scanning of the probe. For practical application in plasmonic lithography, we apply a deep reactive ion etching process to transfer an arbitrary fluidic channel into a silicon substrate and fabricate a high-aspect-ratio imprint master. Subsequently, we carry out the imprint process to replicate the fluidic channel with an aspect ratio of 7.2. For pattern width below 100 nm, we adopt a three-layer structure of photoresist, hard layer, and polymer to record the near field and form a hard mask and transfer mask. Using the multilayer structure, we fabricate high-resolution nanoimprint masters in a silicon substrate with an aspect ratio greater than 1.

Nanoscale 2.5-dimensional surface patterning with plasmonic lithography

“…The height of the structure is mainly determined by the propagating field falling off as 1/ z 2 , where z is the depth of the structure. With respect to the height of the structure, the height fabricated by plasmonic lithography can reach a few microns 16 , 24 . Further, even though patterns are recorded on the PR in this paper, patterns can be transferred onto silicon with a multi-layer transfer process with a higher aspect ratio.…”

Design Strategy for Nanostructured Arrays of Metallodielectric Cuboids to Systematically Tune the Optical Response and Eliminate Spurious Bulk Effects in Plasmonic Biosensors

“…Especially for parallel readout of binding events in high-density arrays by plasmonic imaging [ 39 , 40 ], the generation of strictly regular nanopatterns with minimal response to spurious bulk effects is advantageous as reproducible optical response all over the sensor surface is required for reliable data interpretation. To reduce the effort and costs for the production of the devices, replication from a master structure [ 41 ] will probably be the most effective approach, e.g., by molding procedures [ 42 ]. The option of signal control [ 4 , 38 , 43 , 44 ] and biofunctionalization make plasmonic platforms a powerful tool in the field of clinical studies [ 43 , 45 ].…”

Plasmonic Lithography: Recent Progress

“…An optical proximity correction method by modulating dosage control of the exposure reported most recently has demonstrated significantly improved image quality ( Figure ) . Applications of direct‐write plasmonic lithography for making nanoimprint masters has been demonstrated, showing that this is a viable alternative to vacuum‐based changed‐particle (e‐beam or ion‐beam) lithography techniques …”