Nanolithography with a NSOM tip - Part II: Experiments

Abstract

We present in this paper a nanolithographic method by introducing a local photo-polymerization in the proximity of tapered optical fiber tip immersed in photocurable resin. The metallic apertured tip, when approached to a solid substrate at a few nanometers distance, delivers UV light to the vicinity of the tip apex and forms a subwavelength light source. The confined light source permits the polymerization to occur locally at the tip extremity, thus allowing generation of micronic/nanometric polymer features. The nanometric positioning control, realized by a commercial AFM operating in tapping mode, ensures the automation of nanolithographic process. The preliminary results presented here validate the concept of near field scanning optical lithography.