Laser Direct-Write Nanopatterning Using Optically Trapped Microspheres

Laser direct-write techniques that are capable of producing sub-100 nm features open a door for an increasing number of applications in photonics, microfluidics, biology, and other emerging areas. However, in most cases, the diffraction limit sets the smallest feature size that one can obtain. In order to address this issue, optical trap assisted nanopatterning (OTAN), offers a platform to modify, remove, or add features on a wide range of materials, including polyimide, silicon, and glass substrate with the feature size scale smaller than the diffraction limit. In this talk, I firstly show patterned nanocone structures on a flat silicon wafer. Later, moving from a flat substrate to a wavy surface, an array of continuous nanofeatures over a bumpy polyimide surface is presented, and we used this to characterize the laterally positional accuracy of the pattern, which in our system is about 30 nm. Finally, using a combination of optical near-field effects and non-linear absorption of the photoresist polymer, we demonstrated an additive nanoscale manufacturing process, where a series of deposited polymers on a glass substrate with size scale about 68 nm is presented. These results suggest that OTAN processing is a viable platform for prototyped devices applications where these devices can be built upon flat and bumpy surfaces.

For further information please contact Samuel Stavis, 301-975-2844, samuel.stavis [at] nist.gov (samuel[dot]stavis[at]nist[dot]gov)