Chemical Nano-Imprint Lithography

The overall objective of this Phase II project is to optimize the fabrication procedure associated with the chemical lithography proposed in Phase I to fabricate nanophotonic structures and devices at a fraction of the cost of existing technologies. We plan to use our optimized chemical lithography procedure to fabricate an ultra-high resolution patterns and devices including nano-probe for near field scanning optical microscopy, nanolithography. This device will be based on three-dimensional photonic crystal technology, which will help provide ultra high spatial resolution while maintaining high spectral and temporal resolving power. It is also likely due its small size, high resolution, and dynamic range that this probe will find its natural application in single molecule detection in physical and biological sciences as well as studying a small number of quantum dots. Results of this work will have applications in other micro-optic and Nano-MEMS technologies for chemical biosensors. During Phase II, we plan to optimize and refine the fabrication procedures explored in phase I to implement and help commercialize nanophotonic based devices to develop next generation high resolution nano-lithographic based systems.