Measurement of pull-off force on imprinted nanopatterns in an inert liquid

We report on the measurement of the pull-off force on nanoscale patterns that are formed by thermal nanoimprint lithography (t-NIL). Various patterns with feature sizes in the range of 50-900 nm were fabricated on silicon substrates using a rigiflex polymeric mold of ultraviolet curable polyurethane acrylate (PUA, Young's modulus similar to 1 GPa) or perfluoropolyether (PFPE, Young's modulus similar to 10.5 MPa) and a resist layer of polystyrene (PS) of three different molecular weights (M-w = 18 100, 211 600 and 2043 000). The pull-off force was measured in non-polar, non-reactive perfluorodecalin (PFD) solvent between a sharp atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip and an imprinted pattern. Our experimental data demonstrated that the measured pull-off forces were in good agreement with a simple adhesion model based on Lifshitz theory. Also, the force on the pressed region (valley) is higher than that on the cavity region (hill), with the ratio (hill/valley) decreasing with the decrease of pattern size and the increase of molecular weight. The confinement effects were more pronounced for smaller patterns (< 300 nm) and higher molecular weights (Mw = 211 600 and 2043 000) presumably due to sluggish movement of polymer chains into nano-cavities. Finally, the experimental observations were compared with molecular dynamic simulations based on a simplified amorphous polyethylene model.