Breaking the Far-Field Diffraction Limit in Optical Nanopatterning via Repeated Photochemical and Electrochemical Transitions in Photochromic Molecules

• Main Authors: Brimhall, Nicole (Author), Manthena, Rajakumar Varma (Author), Menon, Rajesh (Author), Andrew, Trisha Lionel (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society (APS), 2012-03-23T17:30:18Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

By saturating a photochromic transition with a nodal illumination (wavelength, λ), one isomeric form of a small molecule is spatially localized to a region smaller than the far-field diffraction limit. A selective oxidation step effectively locks this pattern allowing repeated patterning. Using this approach and a two-beam interferometer, we demonstrate isolated lines as narrow as λ/8 (78 nm) and spacing between features as narrow as λ/4 (153 nm). This is considerably smaller than the minimum far-field diffraction limit of λ/2. Most significantly, nanopatterning is achieved via single-photon reactions and at low light levels, which in turn allow for high throughput.
Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) Initiative
United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Contract No. N66001-10-1-4065)
National Science Foundation (U.S.)