On the assessment by grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering of replica quality in polymer gratings fabricated by nanoimprint lithography

Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) can be used to characterize the replica quality of polymer gratings prepared by thermal nanoimprint lithography (NIL). Here it is shown using GISAXS experiments that a series of NIL polymer gratings with different line quality present characteristic features that can be associated with the level of defects per line. Both stamps and NIL polymer gratings exhibit characteristic semicircle-like GISAXS patterns. However NIL polymer gratings with defective lines exhibit GISAXS patterns with an excess of diffuse scattering as compared to those of the corresponding stamps. In a first approach, this effect is attributed to a reduction of the effective length of the lines diffracting coherently as the number of defects per line increases. © Blackwell Publishing 2014.The financial support of MICINN through CTQ2010-15680, MAT2011-23455 and MAT2012-33517 is gratefully acknowledged. ER and IMF thank MICINN, Spain, for a `Ramón y Cajal' contract (RYC-2011-08069) and for an FPI fellowship, respectively. MS and DMT thank CSIC for the tenure of JAE fellowships and the Fondo Social Europeo (FSE) for co-financing the JAE program.Peer Reviewe