Melting behavior of imprinted polymer nanostructures

PMSE 89

Christopher L. Soles, csoles@nist.gov1, Ronald L. Jones, ronald.jones@nist.gov1, Hyun Wook Ro, hyunwook.ro@nist.gov1, Eric K. Lin, eric.lin@nist.gov1, Alamgir Karim, alamgir.karim@nist.gov1, Wen-Li Wu1, Ronald M. Reano, reano@ece.osu.edu2, Walter Hu, walterhu@eecs.umich.edu3, Stella W. Pang, pang@umich.edu3, and Diego M. Casa4. (1) Polymers Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8541, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8541, (2) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, 205 Dreese Laboratory, 2015 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, (3) Department of Electrical and Computer Science Engineering, University of Michigan, 1301 Beal Ave. EECS 2409, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2099, (4) Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, CMC-CAT, 9700 S. Cass Ave, Argonne, IL 60439
Nanoimprint lithography is used to fabricate parallel line and space gratings into poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Critical dimension small angle X-ray scattering (CD-SAXS) reveals that the periodicity of the grating is (325 ± 1) nm with a trapezoidal cross section of the lines. The average line width, height and sidewall angle of the trapezoid are (141 ± 1) nm, (210 ± 10) nm, and (5 ± 1) °, respectively. CD-SAXS also monitors the real time shape evolution of the nanostructures as they are annealed just above the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the PMMA. During this anneal the patterns decay with an exponential time dependence. However, in the early stages of annealing, the patterns reduce their height at a rate that is one to two orders of magnitude faster than the rate at which they broaden in width. Studies on several different PMMA samples with different molecular masses indicate that this fast reduction in height relative to the broadening reflects residual flow stresses in the materials created by the imprinting process.
 

Fracture and Relaxations in Polymer Solids -- in Honor of the 60th Birthday of Professor Albert F. Yee
8:30 AM-12:00 PM, Monday, 29 August 2005 Grand Hyatt -- Independence Ballroom H - I, Oral

Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering

The 230th ACS National Meeting, in Washington, DC, Aug 28-Sept 1, 2005