| The objectives of this research are to develop a process performing patterned anodic oxidation on aluminum thin films by nanoimprint patterning technique and gain better understanding on the mechanism of anodic oxidation and patterned anodic oxidation on aluminum thin films.; The following four tasks need to be completed in order to achieve our research goals. The first is to perform anodic oxidation on aluminum thin films. The second is to develop a nanoimprint lithography procedure. The third is to perform patterned anodic oxidation on aluminum thin films with polymer and silicon dioxide anodization masks, utilizing various pattern transfer techniques. The last is to construct a model explaining the experimental observation.; In this research work, we have successfully developed a nanoimprint lithography procedure with our own devices, parameters and techniques, and successfully transferred ∼200 nm patterns by this procedure. We successfully performed the anodic oxidation on sub-micrometer thick aluminum thin films. For the first time, we achieved patterned anodic oxidation on aluminum thin films, with both polymer and silicon dioxide anodization masks. We observed the formation of single, two, and three pores at the exposed regions for the first time. A new model explaining the formation of pores and the pore growth in the case of patterned anodic oxidation on aluminum thin films is proposed. This model is consistent with known reported experimental results. |
