Fabrication of micro/submicron hierarchical structures on ceramic sheet surfaces combining 2-step imprinting and in-plane compression processes

Many organisms have functional microstructured surfaces. Particularly, lotus leaves have hierarchical dual-scale micro/nanostructures on their surface and exhibit highly water repellent properties. We have developed techniques to fabricate patterns on inorganic material surfaces such as ceramics. Applying these techniques to fabricate hierarchical structures can make ceramic surfaces even more promising. In this paper, we prepared 2 kinds of mold with line-and-space patterns with pitches 50 μm and 2 μm and fabricated micro (rough patterns)/submicron (fine patterns) hierarchical structures on sintered ceramic sheets using a newly developed imprinting process with in-plain compression method. We proposed processes for the fabrication of such hierarchical structures, discussed the possibility of higher resolution of the patterns by comparison with the analytical results.