Numerical investigation of thermal contact resistance between the mold and substrate on laser-assisted imprinting fabrication

The melting duration and molten depth are key information for laser-assisted direct imprinting (LADI), which raises the issue of the melting and solidification induced by an excimer pulse laser shining through unilaterally transparent binary materials. Based on the matured laser annealing analysis, the thermal contact resistance is taken into account to simulate and predict the melting behavior for this process. The results in this study indicate that the laser annealing case and the perfect-contact case provide the upper-bound as well as the lower-bound values for the physical quantities involved in this process even, without detailed information about the evolution of thermal contact resistance during the heating and cooling process. Sensitivity analysis of the thermal contact resistance is investigated herein and could be employed to optimize fabrication parameters such as pulse duration and the fluence of the laser.