FABRICATION OF SUBMICRON STRUCTURES IN NANOPARTICLE/POLYMER COMPOSITE BY HOLOGRAPHIC LITHOGRAPHY AND REACTIVE ION ETCHING
A. Ping Zhang, Sailing He, Kyoung Tae Kim, Yong-Kyu Yoon, Ryszard Burzynski, Marek Samoc and Paras Prasad
We report on the fabrication of nanoparticle/polymer submicron structures by combining holographic lithography and reactive ion etching. Silica nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed in a (SU8) polymer matrix at a high concentration, and in situ polymerization (cross-linking) is used to form a nanoparticle/polymer composite. Another photosensitive SU8 layer cast upon the nanoparticle/SU8 composite layer is structured through holographic lithography, whose pattern is finally transferred to the nanoparticle/SU8 layer by the reactive ion etching process. Honeycomb structures in a submicron scale are experimentally realized in the nanoparticle/SU8 composite.
Keywords: Nanoparticles, Polymers, Etching, Nanopatterning and Nanolithography