Highly ordered ultra-long oxide nanotubes are fabricated by a simple two-step strategy involving the growth of copper nanowires on nanopatterned template substrates by magnetron sputtering, followed by thermal annealing in air. The formation of such tubular nanostructures is explained according to the nanoscale Kirkendall effect. The concept of this new fabrication route is also extendable to create periodic zero-dimensional hollow nanostructures.

Using the vertical standing wave phenomena commonly regarded as a deterrent in holographic lithography, multifaceted three‐dimensional (3D) nanostructures are fabricated on polymeric photoresist materials using a simple two‐beam interferometer. Large‐area 3D nanostructures with high aspect ratios (greater than 10) are readily produced using this methodology, including grating, pillar and pore patterns. Furthermore, manipulation of the lithography process conditions results in unique sidewall profiles of the nanostructures. Such 3D holographic control even produces highly porous polymer membranes composed of 3D interconnected pore networks, which resembles the 3D photonic crystal compound nanostructures that were previously attainable only with limited pattern coverage area using complex multibeam holographic lithography processes. Such well‐tailored high‐aspect‐ratio 3D nanostructures with large pattern coverage area further enable the fabrication of novel nanostructures for functionalized materials via various additive and subtractive pattern transfer techniques such as etching, deposition, and molding. In particular, direct molding followed by thermal decomposition process leads to the synthesis of hierarchical titanium oxide nanostructures of tunable 3D geometry, which would be of great significance in applications of photonic crystals, photovoltaic solar cells, and photocatalyst in water decontamination.

In this paper, we introduce a simple fabrication technique which can pattern high-aspect-ratio polymer nanowire structures of photoresist films by using a maskless one-step oxygen plasma etching process. When carbon-based photoresist materials on silicon substrates are etched by oxygen plasma in a metallic etching chamber, nanoparticles such as antimony, aluminum, fluorine, silicon or their compound materials are self-generated and densely occupy the photoresist polymer surface. Such self-masking effects result in the formation of high-aspect-ratio vertical nanowire arrays of the polymer in the reactive ion etching mode without the necessity of any artificial etch mask. Nanowires fabricated by this technique have a diameter of less than 50 nm and an aspect ratio greater than 20. When such nanowires are fabricated on lithographically pre-patterned photoresist films, hierarchical and hybrid nanostructures of polymer are also conveniently attained. This simple and high-throughput fabrication technique for polymer nanostructures should pave the way to a wide range of applications such as in sensors, energy storage, optical devices and microfluidics systems.

In this study, we have developed a tunable Lloyd-mirror interferometer with two degrees of freedom, in contrast to a traditional system with one degree of freedom. This new Lloyd-mirror interferometer allows an angular rotation of the mirror independently from that of a sample stage, resulting in an increased pattern coverage area with tunable pattern periodicity. Both theoretical and experimental results verify that the tunable characteristic of the modified configuration enhances the nanopatterning capabilities of the Lloyd-mirror interference lithography system especially in achieving greater pattern coverage area for larger pattern periodicities.

Abstract:In this paper, we review the current development of stencil lithography for scalable micro-and nanomanufacturing as a resistless and reusable patterning technique. We first introduce the motivation and advantages of stencil lithography for large-area micro-and nanopatterning. Then we review the progress of using rigid membranes such as SiNx and Si as stencil masks as well as stacking layers. We also review the current use of flexible membranes including a compliant SiNx membrane with springs, polyimide film, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer, and photoresist-based membranes as stencil lithography masks to address problems such as blurring and non-planar surface patterning. Moreover, we discuss the dynamic stencil lithography technique, which significantly improves the patterning throughput and speed by moving the stencil over the target substrate during deposition. Lastly, we discuss the future advancement of stencil lithography for a resistless, reusable, scalable, and programmable nanolithography method.