ROLE OF SURFACE TENSION IN NANO IMPRINT LITHOGRAPHY

Kyle J. Alvine, Yifu Ding, Hyun Wook Ro, Brian Okerburg, Christopher L. Soles, and Alamgir Karim

Abstract:

Many applications of nanotechnology will fail in the absence of robust nanostructures, with dimensional changes of only a few nanometers sufficient to render some devices inoperable.  Surface tension (S) is a critical parameter in nanostructure robustness as one of the primary driving forces for pattern topography decay is the Laplace pressure ~ S/R, where R is the approximate feature size.  Surface tension can also affect slip conditions in molding and thus effects buildup of internal stress in thermally embossed nanostructures.  Here we present preliminary measurements on fluorinated surfactants (FS)/ polystyrene (PS) systems to isolate effects of surface tension on stability in polymeric nanostructures made by thermal embossing Nano-Imprint Lithography (NIL).  FS/PS systems demonstrated reduced prevalence of line fracture during the demolding step of NIL indicating improved mold release characteristics along with slower decay time while annealing at Tg.  However, annealing these FS nanostructures at Tg for long times induced unexpected line collapse in some patterns.

Author information:

Kyle Alvine

Mentor:  Christopher Soles

Polymers Division

Bldg 224, Room A211, MS 8541       

Phone:  5891

Fax: 301-975-3928

kalvine@nist.gov

Not a member of Sigma Xi

Poster Category:  Physics