Nanolithography based on patterned metal transfer and its application to organic electronic devices

We demonstrate a patterning method capable of producing features of submicron scale based on the transfer of a metal film from a stamp to a substrate assisted by cold welding. The patterned metal film can be used as an etch mask to replicate the pattern on the substrate, or the film itself can serve as contact electrodes for a wide range of electronic devices. We demonstrate the versatility of the technique by fabricating a polymer grating on SiO2 with lateral dimensions <80 nm and a pattern resolution approaching 10 nm, and by fabricating organic solar cells and pentacene channel organic thin-film transistors with channel lengths as short as 1 μm. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.