Nanoimprint Technology for Patterned Magnetic Nanostructures

Abstract

This chapter describes the principle of nanoimprint lithography, different nanoimprint forms and their relative merits and shortcomings, key factors in nanoimprinting (masks, materials, pressing methods and imprinting pressure uniformity, material dispensing methods, vacuum, mold separation), examples of nanoimprinting in magnetic nanostructure fabrication, control of magnetic structure properties by patterning, the principle of quantized magnetic disks (QMDs) (patterned magnetic media), and the fabrication and commercial future of QMDs. The invention and development of QMDs and nanoimprint are intertwined, and this history is briefly discussed. The chapter is primarily based on author's own research in the field in the last 16 years.