Hot embossing of photonic crystal polymer structures with a high aspect ratio

Hot embossing is a promising approach for mass production of photonic crystal structures. This paper describes the fabrication of a replication tool for two-dimensional photonic crystal patterns and its replication in substrates of poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and cyclic olefin copolymer (COC). A nickel tool for the replication of structures with lateral dimensions of 110 nm and heights of approximately 370 nm is fabricated via electroplating of a nanostructured sample resulting in an aspect ratio of approximately 3.5. The structures are subsequently hot embossed into PMMA and COC substrates.