Patent ID: 8641839

Claim:
A method of imprinting microfeatures or nanofeatures into an amorphous metal alloy layer, the method comprising the steps of: a) heating an amorphous metal alloy layer to a temperature within a supercooled liquid region of the amorphous metal alloy to soften the amorphous metal alloy layer; b) transferring a pattern into the softened amorphous metal alloy layer by: i) pressing a mold having a desired pattern disposed thereon into the softened amorphous alloy layer to transfer the pattern into the amorphous softened metal alloy layer, wherein the mold comprises a release layer and the release layer contacts the amorphous metal alloy layer being imprinted; and ii) removing the mold from the amorphous metal alloy layer once the amorphous metal alloy layer has cooled to a temperature below the supercooled liquid temperature region of the amorphous metal alloy; and c) cooling the amorphous metal alloy to a temperature below the supercooled liquid temperature region of the amorphous metal alloy to resolidify the amorphous metal alloy layer, wherein the amorphous metal alloy layer is disposed on a substrate, said substrate comprising a material selected from the group consisting of silicon, quartz, alumina and nickel-tungsten.