Patterning Spherical Surfaces at the Two‐Hundred‐Nanometer Scale Using Soft Lithography

Two soft lithographic techniques—topographically directed photolithography (TOP) and near-field contact-mode photolithography—have been used to pattern spherical surfaces with features as small as 175 nm. Each technique has the ability to pattern more than a 60° arc of a spherical surface, albeit with distortions at the edge. Use as an optical polarizer demonstrates an application of these types of patterned surface.