Abstract

Scanning probe microscopy is a promising tool for microfabrication of the nanometer scale. Various methods of local material modification based on different microscopic mechanisms have been proposed, examples of which are: material transfer between a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip and a substrate, local oxidation of silicon using an atomic force microscope (AFM) or an STM and the local patterning of a photoresist with an AFM. Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is also an attractive candidate for nanofabrication, which can surpass the diffraction limit in conventional optical lithography by using a tapered liber tip to illuminate the sample. Here the optical spot size in the near field is given by the resolution of the SNOM which in turn is determined by the details of the tip geometry and is typically between 50 and 100 nanometers.

© 1996 Optical Society of America