Nano-fabrication by capillary lithography : application to the organization of metallic nanoparticles
NanoImprint lithography by spontaneous polymer destabilization is an alternative toThermal NanoImprint, which limits physical contact between polymer and mold surfaces.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate this spontaneous destabilization and to work out ifit can lead to the formation of nanostructures by duplicating positively a structured mold.This process is in particular affected by temperature or electric field present at mold - air -polymer interfaces and by the distance d between the structures of the mold and the polymersurface.The studies of this thesis were focused on the influence of these process parameters. Itwas shown that the structuration depends more of charges’ effect than temperature, since thepolymer can creep. We highlighted the following scenario of structuration: a positiveduplication appears first and is followed, in some cases, by the filling of the mold cavitiesleading to a negative duplication. A theoretical model was used to calculate the mostfavorable destabilization wavelength, and a comparison with experimental results helped toexplain why and under which circumstances the final structuration is positive or negative. Aninvestigation was performed on the spontaneous destabilization of flexible substrate but thebigger thickness of flexible films led to a destabilisation with a wide wavelength and so tothe filling of molds’ cavities.