Alumina Templates on Silicon Wafers with Hexagonally or Tetragonally Ordered Nanopore Arrays via Soft Lithography

Due to the potential importance and usefulness, usage of highly ordered nanoporous anodized aluminum oxide can be broadened in industry, when highly ordered anodized aluminum oxide can be placed on a substrate with controlled thickness. Here we report a facile route to highly ordered nanoporous alumina with the thickness of hundreds-of-nanometer on a silicon wafer substrate. Hexagonally or tetragonally ordered nanoporous alumina could be prepared by way of thermal imprinting, dry etching, and anodization. Adoption of reusable polymer soft molds enabled the control of the thickness of the highly ordered porous alumina. It also increased reproducibility of imprinting process and reduced the expense for mold production and pattern generation. As nanoporous alumina templates are mechanically and thermally stable, we expect that the simple and cost-effective fabrication through our method would be highly applicable in electronics industry.