title: Toward nanometer-scale optical photolithography: utilizing the near-field of bowtie optical nanoantennas.
abstract: Optically resonant metallic bowtie nanoantennas are utilized as fabrication tools for the first time, resulting in the production of polymer resist nanostructures <30 nm in diameter at record low incident multiphoton energy densities. The nanofabrication is accomplished via nonlinear photopolymerization, which is initiated by the enhanced, confined optical fields surrounding the nanoantenna. The position, size, and shape of the resist nanostructures directly correlate with rigorous finite-difference time-domain computations of the field distribution, providing a nanometer-scale measurement of the actual field confinement offered by single optical nanoantennas. In addition, the size of the photoresist regions yields strong upper bounds on photoacid diffusion and resist resolution in SU-8, demonstrating a technique that can be generalized to the study of many current and yet-to-be-developed photoresist systems.
authors.affiliation: E.L. Ginzton Laboratory and Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, California 94305, USA. arvisun@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sundaramurthy
authors.forename: P James
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Schuck
authors.forename: Nicholas R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Conley
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Fromm
authors.forename: Gordon S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Kino
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Moerner
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D055095:Optics and Photonics