DEVELOPMENT OF NANOIMPRINTED METAL OXIDES AND METALS NANOSTRUCTURES FOR FUNCTIONAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Direct nanoimprint lithography (NIL) of metal oxide and metal using formulated liquid resins were studied. The development of methacrylate and benzylthiolate resist as imprinting resist enables large area direct patterning of sub-100 nm metal oxides and metals, respectively. Both approaches were designed to provide direct inorganic imprinting with high transfer fidelity and yield. This leads to successful nanoimprinting of trivalent (Fe2O3), tetravalent (SiO2, ZrO2, TiO2), pentavalent (Nb2O5, Ta2O5) oxides and metal (Pd). In this thesis, the imprinted metal oxide and metal nanostructures were used for (1) NIL mold fabrication, (2) cell-topographical studies, (3) photovoltaic and (4) H2 sensor applications.