Continuous manufacturing of blazed angle-tunable prismatic micro/nanopatterns by axis-tilted nanoinscribing

The blazed microand nanopatterns have recently been of increasing interest as functional diffraction gratings possessing low polarization dependent loss, and high rotational efficiency. Fabrication of the blazed grating patterns based on conventional nanopatterning protocols such as photolithography, nanoimprint lithography, or e-beam lithography, however, often demands a lot of time and cost. In that regard, we develop Z-axis-tilted Dynamic Nano-Inscribing (Z-DNI) technique which can continuously create the blazed microand nanopatterns by sliding a rigid tool edge mounted at a tilted angle over diverse flexible polymer substrates (e.g., polycarbonate, polyimide, PET, etc.). ZDNI can readily tune the blazed angle, grating period, and processible area by controlling the tilting axis, shape, and stroke distance of a grating tool. We also investigate that the substrate-contacting force and local temperature of a tool as well as its inscribing speed influence the depth and sharpness of the blazed patterns. Through a systematic study on those important parameters, we can determine the optical processing conditions for the blazed patterns of desired blazed angles and periods on desired substrate materials. The low-cost, highly reproducible fabrication of blazed microand nanopatterns with specific designs can be implemented by Z-DNI, which will lead to practical flexible electronic, photonic, and sensing device developments.