Wafer-scale synthesis of monodisperse synthetic magnetic multilayer nanorods.

A double exposure technique has been used to fabricate nanoimprint stamps for making monodisperse nanorods with controllable lengths. The nanorod length is defined by a normal photolithography projection process whereas the nanorod width is defined by an edge-lithography process using a soft polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) contact mask. Taking advantage of edge-lithography, the nanorod width can be less than the diffraction limit of the exposure light. Using these nanorod stamps, synthetic magnetic multilayer (SMM) nanorods have been fabricated using nanoimprint lithography, resulting in a length variation of ∼3%. Nanorod magnetic properties have been characterized in both longitudinal and in-plane transverse directions of the nanorods. A theoretical model has been established to explain the magnetic responses and has revealed that both shape anisotropy and interlayer interactions are important in determining the properties of SMM nanorods.