Floating Tip Nanolithography

Abstract

We demonstrate noncontact, high quality surface modification of soft and hard materials with spatial resolution of approximately 20 nm. The nanowriting is based on the interaction between the surface and the tip of a standard atomic force microscope illuminated by a focused femtosecond laser beam and hovering (at ambient conditions) 1-4 nanometers above the surface without touching it. Field enhancement at the tip-sample gap or high tip temperature are identified as the causes of material ablation.

Photonic structures in photoresist and PDMS surface patterned by AFM lithography

“…Park System provides very powerful software, XEL, for nanolithography. It supports a variety of lithography modes [8]. XE-series atomic force microscope allows us to modify the surface of soft materials such as photoresist.…”

Fundamentals and Applications of Near-Field Radiative Energy Transfer

“…In addition to nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy instrumentations, tip-induced near-field radiation can be beneficially used for laser-based processing and structuring of materials at the nanoscale, in the order of ∼50 nm or smaller. Upon illuminating a silicon tip or a metalcoated tip with a femtosecond laser, electromagnetic fields will be highly concentrated at the tip apex due to the optical antenna effect (Au et al, 2008;Schuller et al, 2009) and the excitation of localized surface polaritons (Chimmalgi et al, 2003;Milner et al, 2008). This EM field concentration may cause surface modification either through a hot tip interaction with a surface, leading to the melting/evaporation of the material (Kirsanov et al, 2003), or EM field enhancement under tip triggering the material ablation (Chimmalgi et al, 2003;Milner et al, 2008).…”

“…Upon illuminating a silicon tip or a metalcoated tip with a femtosecond laser, electromagnetic fields will be highly concentrated at the tip apex due to the optical antenna effect (Au et al, 2008;Schuller et al, 2009) and the excitation of localized surface polaritons (Chimmalgi et al, 2003;Milner et al, 2008). This EM field concentration may cause surface modification either through a hot tip interaction with a surface, leading to the melting/evaporation of the material (Kirsanov et al, 2003), or EM field enhancement under tip triggering the material ablation (Chimmalgi et al, 2003;Milner et al, 2008). When compared with other tip-based nanomanufacturing technologies, such as dip-pen nanolithography (e.g., Piner et al, 1999), thermal tip-based processing (e.g., Pires et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2010;Wei et al, 2010), and chemomechanical nanoscale patterning (e.g., Wacaser et al, 2003;Liu et al, 2004), the laser-based nanoscale material processing has a compelling advantage in manufacturable materials: its high energy concentration enables the nanoscale ablation and deposition of high melting-point metals, such as Au and FeCr (Chimmalgi et al, 2003;Kirsanov et al, 2003;Milner et al, 2008;Grigoropoulos et al, 2007).…”

New optical near-field nanolithography with optical fiber probe laser irradiating atomic force microscopy probe tip

“…In recent years, some exciting developments, such as the fabrication of surface nanostructures, have been motivated by laser-irradiated AFM metallic probe [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Chimmalgi et al [8] performed the surface nanostructuring by nano-/femtosecond spatial focusing laserassisted scanning force microscopy.…”