Nanoimprint lithography using IR laser irradiation

A new technique called ‘‘infrared laser-assisted nanoimprint lithography’’ was utilised to soften the thermoplastic polymer material mR-I 8020 during nanoimprint lithography. A laser setup and a sample holder with pressure and temperature control were designed for the imprint experiments. The polymer was spin coated onto crystalline Si<1 1 1>substrates. A prepatterned Si<1 1 1>substrate, which is transparent for the CO2 laser irradiation, was used as an imprint stamp as well. It was shown, that the thermoplastic resist mR-I 8020 could be successfully imprinted using the infrared CW CO2 laser irradiation (l = 10.6 mm). The etching rate of the CO2 laser beam irradiated mR-I 8020 resist film under O2 RF (13.56 MHz) plasma treatment and during O2 reactive ion beam etching was investigated as well