Fast fabrication of TiO2 hard stamps for nanoimprint lithography

The fabrication of imprinting stamps plays a vital role in the nanoimprinting lithography. In this work, we proposed a facile method to fabricate TiO2 hard stamp by patterning sol-gel films. A polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) soft stamp with highly ordered micropit array was used as an original stamp to imprint the TiO2 sol which was spin coated on a quartz wafer. The nano-hardness and Young's modulus of TiO2 hard stamp are in the range of 7.7-10.0 GPa and 118.9-130.0 GPa, which is much higher than the conventional PDMS material. Afterwards the TiO2 hard stamps are demonstrated in both UV and hot embossing lithography with a promising life cycle. The proposed stamp can be extended to other metal oxides, which possesses a promising prospective for large scale patterning because of the low cost and excellent mechanical durability. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.