The evolution and generation of nanosurfaces and their microcontact mechanism in glass-embossing process

Glass-embossing technology has attracted great attention due to its promise of low-cost and environmentally conscious fabrication of well-defined and controllable surfaces and nanostructured devices. The embossed surface quality of glass structures is a very important index for optics. However, the evolutions of nanosurfaces and their microcontact mechanism during glass-embossing process have not been deeply and comprehensively investigated. Here, we studied the surface morphology evolution of optical glass under different processing conditions using a tungsten carbide surface plate with nanoscale roughness as the mold. The light transmittances of different embossed glasses were detected by an ultraviolet spectrophotometer. The flow deformation and microcontact mechanism of glass-supercooled liquids were revealed during glass-embossing process. The result showed that the rough optical glass can successfully replicate the nanoscale smoothness of the tungsten carbide template without grinding or polishing. On the basis of the previous study, the glass-surfaced structures from nanoscale to macroscale are fabricated. This work provides better understanding for the evolution of nanosurfaces and the fabrication of nanostructured optics during glass-embossing process.