Patterning lead zirconate titanate nanostructures at sub-200-nm resolution by soft confocal imprint lithography and nanotransfer molding

Patterned sol-gel-derived lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films with lateral resolutions down to 100 nm on silicon are reported. Both an imprint and a transfer-molding method were employed. The formed patterns after annealing were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Despite the small dimensions and flexibility of the poly dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamps used for patterning, the quality of replication was found to be good. The influence of the surface energies of the substrate, PDMS mold, and precursor solution on the quality of pattern replication is discussed. The colloidal structure of the PZT sol-gels from which the patterns were made was studied with small-angle X-ray scattering. The sols were found to be chemically homogeneous down to a length scale of ∼2 nm and higher, which is sufficient for pattern replication on ∼100 nm scale.