Protrusions, nanoscale

One would normally imagine that the nanoscale protrusion features on the mold are a weak point in NIL. 

A major challenge of the nanoimprint technique is to perform a correct detachment of the mold from the cured resist. Its difficulty is inherent to the high density of nanoscale protrusions patterned on the mold surface, which effectively increases the total area in contact with the UV-cured resist. Therefore, sticking between imprinted polymeric structures and the mold surface can have the three following detrimental consequences ... 

Numerical simulations that include the geometry for a nonplanar interface as well as the shape of the water protrusion give a more detailed picture of the different regimes involved in the formation of a field-induced nanoscale water bridge. " ... 

Figure 13.3 Model for simulating the formation of a nanoscale water bridge under an electric field. The field is calculated by assuming a radial distribution ho is the thickness of the adsorbed water layer in the absence of an electric field h is the maximum height of the droplet induced bythe field [total droplet height = ho - - h)-, and w is width of the liquid protrusion induced bythe field at half height.

---