Nanoimprinting of Metallic Glass for Periodic Nano-Hole Structures with Dies Fabricated by FIB-CVD and RIE

Abstract

Metallic glasses are amorphous structured materials exhibiting perfect Newtonian viscous flow in the supercooled liquid temperature range and superior nanoformability under low stress. These properties make metallic glasses ideal materials for nanoimprinting, which is a promising high-throughput, low-cost method of mass producing micro- and nanodevices. For this study, we fabricated SiO₂/Si dies having periodic nanodot structures with dot pitches of 50 nm and 40 nm by focused ion beam (FIB) assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and reactive ion etching (RIE). We successfully nanoimprinted Pt-based metallic glass using these dies. The periodic nanohole structures were accurately imprinted due to the optimization of the loading and unloading thermal cycle conditions in the nanoimprinting process with the flattened and thinned metallic glass specimen. The results demonstrate the excellent capability of metallic glass as a nanoimprintable material for fabricating nanodevices such as patterned media.