Abstract

Similar to the further development of two-photon microscopy into two-photon lithography [1], it was proposed already in the early reports of stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy that the confined excitation volume can be applied to spatially control chemical reactions on the nanometer scale [2,3]. STED lithography allows the assembly of polymer structures down to several tens of nanometers in any desired geometry [4]. Using a 110 fs pulsed NIR laser (780 nm) for multi-photon polymerization and a 532 nm CW laser for STED, we are able to obtain structure sizes of 55 nm in all three dimensions and manufacture two clearly separated lines with 120 nm lateral distance [5,6].

© 2015 IEEE