Product Code: ICAL08_N101

Optical Trap Assisted Nanoscale Laser Direct-Write Patterning (Invited Presentation - 40 Minutes)
Authors:
James Joy, Princeton University; Princeton NJ USA
Euan Mcleod, University of Princeton; Princeton NJ USA
Craig B. Arnold, Princeton University; Princeton NJ USA
Presented at ICALEO 2008

The ability to directly print patterns on size scales below 100 nm is important for many applications where the production or repair of high resolution and density features are important. Laser based direct-write methods have the benefit of quickly and easily being able to modify and create structures on existing devices, but feature sizes are conventionally limited by diffraction. In this presentation, we show how to overcome this limit with a new method of probe-based near-field nanopatterning in which we employ a CW laser to optically trap and manipulate dispersed microspheres against a substrate using a 2-d Bessel beam optical trap. A secondary, pulsed nanosecond laser at 355 nm is directed through the bead and used to modify the surface below the microsphere, taking advantage of the near-field enhancement near the sphere. Since the pulsed beam has a large spot diameter, the threshold intensity for material modification is only achieved directly below the sphere. We demonstrate materials modification with diameters under 100 nm and are able to manipulate the trapped beads and produce arbitrary patterns at the 100 nm size scale in direct-write fashion. Issues of parallelization, range of materials, and accuracy for this new technique will be discussed.