Scanning near-field optical lithography

The resolution of various scanning probe microscopy methods can be applied to the fabrication of nanostructures. 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 atomic force microscope (AFM). Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) is also an attractive candidate for nanofabrication. 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.