Near-field subwavelength micropattern generation: Pipette guided argon fluoride excimer laser microfabrication

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Near-field optical methods are used, together with the ability of an argon fluoride excimer laser to remove a wide variety of materials without the deposition of detectable heat, to produce structures with nanometer dimensionalities. In this new method of lithography, a hollow glass micropipette is used to guide the 193 nm light of the excimer laser to the surface to be ablated. With such micropipettes, patterns have been produced on photoresists with linewidths that are as small as 70 nm. By investigating the dimensionality of the structures drawn on the photoresist and on the substrate on which the photoresist was deposited, it appears that nonlinear characteristics of the ablation process may allow the near-field dimensionalities to be maintained at distances that are relatively remote from the tip of the pipette aperture.