A 2003 A photocurable poly(dimethylsiloxane) chemistry designed for soft lithographic molding and printing in the nanometer regime

Nanopatterning techniques that use elastomeric elements as stamps, molds, and conformable photomasks provide attractive, low-cost alternatives to photolithography and other established methods, especially for applications in areas such as plastic or molecular electronics.1 The physical properties of the pattern transfer elements can limit the resolution when used in the nanometer regime. For example, tall and narrow features of surface relief are unstable to mechanical collapse when the modulus is too low.2,3 They are susceptible to fracture if the physical toughness is insufficiently high. Past work in soft lithography has relied primarily on elements made with commercially available silicone elastomers that were designed for other applications. As a result, while these materials are useful, they each possess only some of the desired physical properties, which include (i) the ability to photocure (to avoid thermally induced stresses and shrinkage and to enable photopat