Pattern forming material and pattern forming method

A pattern forming material comprising a copolymer including a first group for generating an acid through irradiation with an energy beam and a second group having a basic property, wherein said copolymer is a binary copolymer represented by the following general formula or a ternary or higher copolymer obtained by further polymerizing said binary copolymer with another group:

• ##STR31## wherein R.sub.5 indicates a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group;
• R.sub.6 and R.sub.7 independently indicate a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, a phenyl group or an alkenyl group, or together indicate a cyclic alkyl group, a cyclic alkenyl group, a cyclic alkyl group having a phenyl group or a cyclic alkenyl group having a phenyl group;
• R.sub.8 indicates a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group:
• x satisfies a relationship of 0<x<1;
• and y satisfies a relationship of 0<y<1.