Hybrid direct write lithographic strategies for complex hierarchical structures

Abstract

With the number of alternative lithographic techniques for high resolution and 3D patterning rapidly increasing, there is a need to identify a set of scalable techniques which balances the ability to arbitrarily control every detail of a target pattern and to produce these complex patterns at a high rate. It is in this way that metamaterial devices put forward on a lab scale for applications such as phononics, photonics, and plasmonics can be realized in the industrial scale. This thesis, in approaching this challenge, utilizes combinations of patterning techniques, leveraging the ability for "large" scale alternative lithographic techniques, such as interference lithography or self-assembly, to create the same nanostructured morphology over a large area combined with laser direct write. The process of drawing a single line or isolated voxel can result in a hierarchical pattern defined by the latent motif of the larger-scale technique. The net result is to shift the burden of high resolution patterning from the direct write to the large scale technique, effectively decoupling the correlation between the level of detail and the patterning speed and control. More specifically, the following combinations with laser direct writing were investigated: (1) proximity field nanopatterning for the predefinition of diffraction-order-defined 3D resonators which were applied as "stand-up" plasmonic microresonators, (2) dewetting to conduct development-free 2D patterning of isolated sub-micron lines, and, via overlap effects, nanoscale (<100 nm) gratings, (3) block copolymer self-assembly to initiate the simultaneous annealing and alignment of near-equilibrium microdomains from a metastable starting morphology, and (4) interference lithography to fabricate 3D sub-micron periodic and quasiperiodic hierarchical structures with controllable positioning and tunable fill fraction that has potential for applications to microphotonics. In conjunction with the experimental components of technique development, multiphysics finite element method simulations are used to investigate the structuring mechanism, expected device behavior, and even inverse solutions to the complex problem of arriving at specific target structures. Each of these techniques, along with coupled simulations, represent highly promising first steps towards methods of rapidly generating on-demand hierarchical 2D and 3D structures.