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 40 nm to 2.3 μm are fabricated. We show that P3HT is also excellent for pattern transfer to inorganic materials. Furthermore, a lithography speed of 0.5 mm/s is achieved, which is a few orders of magnitude higher than other known methods of AFM-based nanolithography. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.