Replication of photonic crystals by soft ultraviolet-nanoimprint lithography

Nanoimprint lithography assisted by ultraviolet photopolymerization through a soft elastomer-based mold is applied to the fabrication of silicon-on-insulator slab photonic crystals for optical wavelengths. Variable angular reflectance is used to measure the dispersion of the photonic leaky modes. Experimental results are in good agreement with both theoretical calculations and previous results obtained by standard nanoimprint lithography as well as conventional nanofabrication techniques such as electron-beam lithography. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.