Abstract
This article gives an overview of reactive-monolayer-assisted thermal nanoimprint lithography (R-TNIL) for the fabrication of patterned metal thin layers on substrates by simple wet etching using a thermoplastic polymer resist layer assisted by photochemically grafted polymer layer. A photoreactive monolayer causing a photoinduced graft reaction on the metal surface anchors interfacial resist polymers, resulting in the suppression of thermally induced dewetting of the resist layer and the improvement of lateral pattern resolution of metal thin layers. Line widths of metal patterns could be tuned by controlled side etching. Enhanced adhesion of resist layers was revealed by lateral force curves measured by scanning probe microscopy. It was demonstrated as an application that transparent conductive substrates having metal mesh structures were fabricated by R-TNIL. We also demonstrated R-TNIL involving electrodeposition, which allowed the preparation of metal patterns with controlled aspect ratio. It was proved that the photoreactive monolayer played important roles to fabricate submicrometer patterns of metal thin layers.
