Laser Assisted Roller Imprinting

This paper presents a new roller-based nano-imprinting method based on the laser assisted direct imprint (LADI) technique. Similar to LADI, it utilizes a high-energy pulse laser to melt the silicon substrate and a pre-loaded quartz mold to imprint nano-patterns into the substrate. However, a cylindrical roller made of highly transparent silica is introduced in this new method. Optically, the roller is acting like a cylindrical lens which can focus the laser beam into a line source at the mode/substrate interface. Mechanically, the roller provides a constant line-type contact pressure between the mold and substrate. With this innovative roller design, the laser-assisted imprint process can be carried out in a smooth and continuous way and therefore open the possibility for large-area nano-imprinting and faster imprinting speed. A prototype setup of this laser-assisted roller imprinting (LARI) has been constructed and the experimental results are successfully obtained.