Sub-10 nm imprint lithography and applications

New developments in achieving the holes and dots with 6 nm feature size, 40 nm period on silicon, and 10 nm feature size, 40 nm period on a Au substrate, and an application of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to the nanoscale compact disk (CD) fabrication, are presented. SiO₂ molds were fabricated using high-resolution electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching with minimum lateral feature size of 10 nm to explore the ultimate minimum feature size of NIL. However, isotropic etching was used to further reduce the minimum lateral feature size of the mold to 6 nm. This indicates that the NIL minimum feature size is limited by the minimum mold feature size which can be fabricated rather than the NIL process.