A study of imprint mold materials suited for B2O3-La2O3-based glass

The reactivity between nanoimprint mold materials and optical glass has been investigated by measuring the contact angle between these materials in a nitrogen atmosphere at high temperatures up to 1000 °C. Since low-softening-temperature optical glass was chosen in this study, the thermal upper limit of the contact angle measurement was set as 800 °C. As mold materials, electrodeposited Ni-W alloy containing 40 wt-% W and glasslike carbon (GC) were chosen. In the case of GC, the contact angle did not change greatly at temperatures up to 800 °C, and an obvious reactant phase in the interface layer between the GC and the molten glass was observed. In the case of the Ni-W alloy, the contact angle decreased with increasing temperature, and no reactant phase was observed at the interface. This indicates that the Ni-W alloy is suitable as a mold material for B2O3-La2O3-based optical glass. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(2): 17–22, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10301