Temperature and vibration-assisted effects in nanoimprint gold: An atomistic study

V Nguyen and TH Fang, MATERIALS CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS, 292, 126832 (2022).

DOI: 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2022.126832

This study surveys the effects of taper angle, temperature, vibration, and grain size on the groove formation of the NIL process of a gold substrate. The results indicate that the taper angle has a great impact on the residual stress and groove depth. Imprinting with a taper with angles of 10 degrees, 15 degrees, and 45 degrees could obtain a deep and symmetrical groove. In addition, imprinting at 300 K-500 K could generate a good groove shape. In the range of 300 K-600 K, the temperature does not strongly affect the structure change rate. Besides, imprinting at a vi-bration amplitude of 2.5 angstrom-5 angstrom, a deep and good groove shape can be generated. At the same time, increasing the vibration frequency gives rise to the groove depth. The grain size strongly affects the deformation and phase transformation rate. Increasing the grain size from 3 nm to 7 nm leads to a decrease in the phase transformation rate and an improvement in the groove depth. The grain size is the strongest factor that affects the shape and the phase transformation of the gold substrate compared to other factors. The taper angle, temperature, and vi-bration factors also have a strong effect on the groove shape. However, they have a lower rate of effect on the phase transformation than the grain size.

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