Issue 11, 2024

UV-assisted nanoimprint lithography: the impact of the loading effect in silicon on nanoscale patterns of metalens

Abstract

This work studies the impact of the silicon (Si) loading effect induced by deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) of silicon master molds on the UV-nanoimprint lithography (NIL) patterning of nanofeatures. The silicon molds were patterned with metasurface features with widths varying from 270 to 60 nm. This effect was studied by focus ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The Si loading etching effect is characterized by the variation of pattern feature depth concerning feature sizes because smaller features tend to etch more slowly than larger ones due to etchants being more difficult to pass through the smaller hole and byproducts being harder to diffuse out too. Thus, the NIL results obtained from the Si master mold contain different pattern geometries concerning pattern quality and residual photoresist layer thickness. The obtained results are pivotal for NIL for fabricating devices with various geometrical nanostructures as the research field moves towards commercial applications.

Graphical abstract: UV-assisted nanoimprint lithography: the impact of the loading effect in silicon on nanoscale patterns of metalens

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 feb 2024
Accepted
11 apr 2024
First published
11 apr 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2024,6, 2954-2967

UV-assisted nanoimprint lithography: the impact of the loading effect in silicon on nanoscale patterns of metalens

Z. Alnakhli, Z. Liu, F. AlQatari, H. Cao and X. Li, Nanoscale Adv., 2024, 6, 2954 DOI: 10.1039/D4NA00120F

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