Photocurable composition, and methods using the same for forming cured product pattern and for manufacturing optical component, circuit board and imprinting mold

A photocurable composition comprising:

• a polymerizable compound (A) having a parameter OA=NA/(NC,A−NO,A), wherein NA represents the total number of atoms in the molecule of the polymerizable compound (A), NC,A represents the number of carbon atoms in the molecule of the polymerizable compound (A), and NO,A represents the number of oxygen atoms in the molecule of the polymerizable compound (A);
• and
• a non-polymerizable component (E) containing at least one non-polymerizable compound (X) including a photopolymerization initiator (B), in a proportion in the range of 10% to 50% by weight relative to the total weight of the polymerizable compound (A) and the non-polymerizable component (E), the non-polymerizable component (E) having a weight average molecular weight of 250 or less, the non-polymerizable compound (X) having a parameter OX=NX/(NC,X−NO,X), wherein NX represents the total number of atoms in the molecule of the corresponding compound (X), NC,X represents the number of carbon atoms in the molecule of the corresponding compound (X), and NO,X represents the number of oxygen atoms in the molecule of the corresponding compound (X);
• wherein the photocurable composition satisfies the following relational expressions (1) and (2):
• OA−OE>1.00 (1);
• and
• OAE<3.40 (2),
• wherein OE represents the molar fraction weighted average of the parameters OX of the at least one non-polymerizable compound (X), and OAE represents the molar fraction weighted average of the parameters OA and OE.