Highly tunable, high-throughput nanolithography based on strained regioregular conducting polymer films

Atomic force microscope (AFM) is now a standard imaging tool in laboratories but has displayed limited capability of nanolithography. We discover that an internal tensile strain exists in poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) films, and the physical effect is utilized to achieve highly tunable and high-throughput nanolithography. Trenches with widths spanning nearly two orders of magnitude from $40nmto2.3μm$ are fabricated. We show that P3HT is also excellent for pattern transfer to inorganic materials. Furthermore, a lithography speed of $0.5mm∕s$ is achieved, which is a few orders of magnitude higher than other known methods of AFM-based nanolithography.