Patterning of nanostructures using imprint lithography

1. A method of manufacturing a textured surface comprising:

disposing an ink on a substrate, wherein the ink comprises nanoparticles, a sol gel precursor, and a polar organic solvent, comprising pre-wetting the substrate with polar solvent before disposing ink thereon, wherein the substrate comprises silicon, quartz, or poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA);

contacting the ink disposed on the substrate with a textured mold, the mold comprising a bilayer composite stamp comprising an elastomer layer comprising soft-PDMS and a pattern layer comprising h-PDMS, wherein the mold is permeable to the polar organic solvent, the mold is operative to absorb the solvent during the contacting, wherein the contacting is performed with sufficient pressure to dewet and squeeze-out the ink from an interface of the textured mold and the substrate, and wherein the pre-wetting the substrate comprises pre-wetting areas of the substrate that form the interface with the textured mold;

transferring a texture from the textured mold to the ink disposed on the substrate, wherein the transferring occurs during the contacting, and wherein the transferring of the texture forms no residual layer bridging nanopatterns in the transferred texture;

annealing the substrate;

disposing a planarization layer comprising an organic polymer on the texture on the annealed substrate;

repeating the steps of disposing, contacting, transferring, and annealing, to dispose a second texture on the planarization layer, further comprising pre-wetting the planarization layer with polar solvent before disposing ink thereon, wherein the repeated step of contacting comprises contacting with sufficient pressure to dewet and squeeze-out the ink from an interface of the textured mold and the planarization layer, wherein the pre-wetting the planarization layer comprises pre-wetting areas of the planarization layer that form the interface with the textured mold, and wherein the transferring of the second texture forms no residual layer bridging nanopatterns in the second transferred texture; and

calcining, dissolving, and/or degrading the planarization layer to remove the planarization layer and to form the textured surface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the texture comprises a 2-dimensional, a 3-dimensional structure, or combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contacting of the ink with the textured mold is conducted at a pressure of 0.1 to 5 MPa.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles comprise indium tin oxide, titanium dioxide, aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, or a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles comprise a metal oxide, a metal nitride, a metal carbide, a metal oxynitride, a metal oxycarbide, a metal boride, a metal silicide, or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relative humidity is from about 20% to about 100% during the manufacturing of the textured surface.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the annealing is conducted by heating or by irradiating with microwave radiation, visible light, infra-red radiation, or ultraviolet radiation.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the annealing comprises annealing for 5 minutes to less than 15 minutes.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the textured surface of the textured, annealed substrate has a refractive index of 1.9 to 2.1 at a wavelength of 633 nm.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the textured surface of the textured, annealed substrate comprises a high aspect ratio crystalline inorganic oxide and exhibits less than 8% linear shrinkage in imprinted feature height upon heat treatment at 500° C.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the textured surface is free of organic materials.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

performing the disposing of the ink on the substrate in an environment having 70-100% relative humidity.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the annealing is conducted at temperatures of up to 1000° C.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the annealing is conducted at temperatures of 100 to 500° C. for a period of 5 minutes to 2 hours.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mold comprises an elastomer.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the elastomer comprises a polysiloxane, a polyurethane, a polybutadiene, a polyisoprene, or a combination thereof.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises calcining the planarization layer to remove the planarization layer and to form the textured surface.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the calcining converts the sol-gel precursor into a crystalline phase.

19. A method of manufacturing a textured surface comprising:

disposing an ink on a substrate, wherein the ink comprises nanoparticles, a sol gel precursor, and a polar organic solvent, comprising pre-wetting the substrate with polar solvent before disposing ink thereon, wherein the substrate comprises silicon, quartz, or poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA);

contacting the ink disposed on the substrate with a textured mold, the mold comprising a bilayer composite stamp comprising an elastomer layer comprising soft-PDMS and a pattern layer comprising h-PDMS, wherein the mold is permeable to the polar organic solvent, and the mold is operative to absorb the solvent during the contacting, wherein the contacting is performed with sufficient pressure to dewet and squeeze-out the ink from an interface of the textured mold and the substrate, and wherein the pre-wetting the substrate comprises pre-wetting areas of the substrate that form the interface with the textured mold;

transferring a texture from the textured mold to the ink disposed on the substrate, wherein the transferring occurs during the contacting, and wherein the transferring of the texture forms no residual layer bridging nanopatterns in the transferred texture; and

annealing the substrate to form the textured surface.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising:

performing the disposing in an environment having 70-100% relative humidity.