Abstract: There is provided a mold blank comprising a hard mask, wherein the hard mask layer has a composition containing chromium, nitrogen, and oxygen and has a content variation structure in which content of the nitrogen is varied continuously or gradually in a layer thickness direction and content of the oxygen is varied in the layer thickness direction continuously or gradually substantially in an opposite direction to the nitrogen.

Abstract: A fine pattern is formed with high pattern precision, and a time required for fabricating a mold is considerably shortened. Provided are mask blanks used for manufacturing a sub-master mold by transferring the fine pattern provided on a surface of an original mold by imprint, having a hard mask layer including a chromium compound layer expressed by a chemical formula CrOxNyCz (x>0), on a substrate.

Abstract: Provided is a method of manufacturing a mold for nano-imprint, for forming a projection/recess pattern on a surface of a silicon substrate, including: etching a substrate to form the projection/recess pattern on the surface of the silicon substrate by applying dry-etching to the silicon substrate using a hard mask pattern as a mask, in a state of covering the surface of the silicon substrate with the hard mask pattern made of a chromium-based material; and applying dry-etching to the silicon substrate in etching the substrate using a fluorine-based gas as a reactive gas of an etching gas used for the dry-etching applied to the silicon substrate, and adding an inert gas to the etching gas.