Nanoimprinting of soda–lime glass using vitreous carbon nanomold for high-temperature stable nanophotonic crystal filter

Abstract

We demonstrate a cost-effective and high-precision glass nanoimprinting method to fabricate a nanophotonic device on soda-lime glass using a vitreous carbon (VC) mold. The VC mold was obtained by replication of a furan-based thermoset polymer resin, followed by carbonization. In particular, the shrinkage of the nanostructures on the VC mold during carbonization are discussed and confirmed by finite element analysis using the linear gradual shrinkage ratio model. To verify the applicability of the proposed method to a photonic crystal filter, a nanograting with an effective pattern area of 30 × 30 mm2 was fabricated. The measured peak wavelength value of the glass photonic crystal filter was 597 nm, which was in good agreement with the simulated value of 602 nm. The results of thermal stability evaluation demonstrate that the glass photonic crystal filter was stable up to 510 °C. We believe that such high-precision nanophotonic devices fabricated by the proposed method can benefit various optical applications that require superior thermal, mechanical, and chemical durabilities.