High-quality nano structures fabrication on organic/inorganic hybrid thin films by using UV nanoimprint lithography

In this study, UV nanoimprint lithography (NIL) was conducted with a hybrid mixture of tin oxide and a UV-curable polymer to fabricate 1-D nanostructures on a thin film. It was confirmed through chemical and physical surface analyses that a hybrid thin film with high-resolution nanostructures had been successfully fabricated. In particular, nanostructures with an amplitude of 49.354 nm and a wavelength of 0.768 μm, which are the most similar to the mold used, were achieved at 3 min UV exposure time. Afterward, they were applied to a liquid crystal (LC) device as an alignment layer, with which uniform and homogeneous LC alignment were achieved due to the anisotropic characteristics and geometric restrictions caused by fabricated nano structures. In addition, a high thermal budget was obtained due to the thermal endurance of the hybrid thin films with an LC alignment performance of a UV exposure time of 3 min. Furthermore, the electro-optical performance under this condition was superior to LC devices with conventional rubbed polyimide layers From the results, it was determined that using the UV-NIL process on a hybrid mixture of tin oxide and a UV-curable polymer created high-resolution 1-D nano structures on films that can be used this as LC alignment layers with strong potential for high-quality LC applications.