Fabrication of organic-inorganic hybrid patterns by lithography

Abstract

Periodic patterns with submicrometer to micrometer repetitions are known to be applicable for various optical devices such as diffractive gratings and photonic crystal. In this paper, the periodic patterns of organic-inorganic hybrid materials have been fabricated by photolithography using UV and laser. The hybrid materials derived by the sol-gel method were composed of inorganic materials modified photosensitive organic groups. The photosensitive materials were irradiated periodically by UV light or multi-beam laser interference light, and periodic patterns were fabricated by removal of the unirradiated parts and rinse using the chemical solutions. The pillar sizes such as the height and the distance between neighboring pillars and kinds of the rinse liquids were controlled, resulting in the pillar patterns. Especially, new pillar patterns, in which the pillars are gathered at the top, were obtained by the capillary force between pillars during the drying of the rinse liquid. The interference light of femtosecond beams were irradiated for the TiO2-organic hybrid materials with high refractive index, and periodic patterns with submicrometer repetitions were fabricated. The patterns were controlled by the number of the beam, and various kinds of two- or three-dimensional periodic patterns were obtained.