Double nanoimprint lithography: A technology for effectively reducing feature size

Recently, the authors observed ubiquitous polymer chain ordering in polymer micro- and nanostructures patterned by thermal nanoimprint. These polymer materials exhibit chain ordering during melt processing, which indicates that the double nanoimprint technique has been successfully performed. In this work, the authors present the double nanoimprint technique at elevated temperature for reducing the patterning size of thermoplastic functional polymers without the need for excessive imprint pressure, which eventually results in the size decrease in pattern formation. This double nanoimprint technique is a further application of thermal nanoimprint, followed by anisotropy of material properties, such as the refractive index and optical absorption. (C) 2017 American Vacuum Society.