Magnetic force assisted thermal nanoimprint lithography (MF-TNIL) for cost-effective fabrication of 2D nanosquare array

Abstract The work presented here describes a simple, low-cost, and unconventional technique to fabricate a 2D nanosquare array using magnetic force assisted thermal nanoimprint lithography (MF-TNIL). The nanofabrication process involves two steps: (i) fabrication of a 2D nanosquare array template on a laminated plastic sheet via sequential thermal nanoimprinting of linear nanograting polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp, and (ii) reversal imprinting of template on UV curable polymer using soft UV-nanoimprint lithography. Without using an expensive nanofabrication tool, our proposed technique can fabricate nanosquare array over an area of 1 × 1 cm2 with individual nanosquare having a feature size of about 383 nm × 354 nm × 70 nm. We believe that our proposed MF-TNIL represents a promising nanofabrication technique that will allow fabricating various types of nanostructures for their applications in developing sensors, anti-reflective surfaces, self-cleaning surfaces, etc.