Submicron processing using laser-induced photonic nanojet

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel laser-induced photonic nanojet for micro/nanofabrication. The full width at half maximum of the nanojet is smaller than the diffraction limit, thus allowing for the fabrication of structures at the submicron scale. We first developed the experimental nanojet system, which consists of a laser source, an objective lens, a charge-coupled device camera, and a mobile platform capable of three-dimensional movement. Further, the experimental conditions were optimized by simulating the nanojet. The results showed that submicron features could be created successfully on gold electrodes. Thus far, it has been possible to form features as narrow as approximately 300 nm.