Generation of Nanostructures by Scanning Near-Field Photolithography of Self-Assembled Monolayers and Wet Chemical Etching

Abstract

Nanolithography of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) has been performed by the new technique of scanning near-field photolithography (SNP). Patterns of parallel lines written by SNP have subsequently either been used to generate compositional chemical patterns or been transferred into the underlying substrate by wet etch techniques. Lateral force microscopy (LFM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis has indicated that the line width of both compositional chemical patterns in SAMs and structures in gold is limited only by the aperture of the fiber tip used to deliver UV light. Features only 55 ± 5 nm wide have been etched into gold films using this method.