Infrared-assisted and roller-based direct metal contact transfer technology for flexible polarizer

In this paper we report the fabrication of metallic nano-wired polarizer on polymer substrate based on infrared assisted and roller based direct metal contact transfer technology. This method effectively resolves several serious problems in conventional hot-embossing types of nano-imprinting such as uniformly applied pressure and thermal deformation of the flexible substrate due to over heating. In this new contact printing process, we utilize a glass cylinder to keep the PET substrate being in contact with the mold constantly and stably. To avoid over heating and thermal deformation, an infrared light is used to heat up the surface of the PET substrate and achieves localized melting of the polymer surface. After PET heating, the metallic grating patterns which are per-deposited on the Si mold are transferred on the PET substrate, hence forms a flexible polarizer of metallic grating. In addition, this method does not need chemical etching in or after the transfer process so that it significantly simplifies the printing procedures. We have successfully produced a number of metallic nano-wired flexible polarizers easily by this infrared-assisted and roller-based direct metal contact transfer technology, and their optical performance has been experimentally characterized.