Mechanical characteristics of imprinted nanostructures fabricated with a poly(dimethylsiloxane) mold

Nanoscale imprinted pillars were fabricated with three resin systems and characterized by measuring the spring constant using a scanning probe microscopy cantilever manipulated with a three-axis actuator. The functional dependence of the spring constant on the height and diameter of the pillar was then used to determine the Young’s modulus. Nanoindentation was used to determine the Young’s modulus of the base film. Before high temperature annealing, the Young’s modulus of the imprinted pillar was nearly the same as that of film. After the annealing, the Young’s modulus of the imprinted pillar was lower than that of the film.