Nanolithography Using Bow-tie Nanoantennas

Rouin Farshchi EE235 4/18/07

Sundaramurthy et. al., Nano Letters, 6 355-360 (2006)

Outline
Near-field optics and Nanoantennas Nanolithography Bow-tie nanoantennas - lithography - FDTD modeling Summary

Near-field Optics

Sanchez, PRL 82, 4014 (1999)

Near-field: immediate vicinity of light source with dimensions < .

Near-field Probes: Sharp tips (ANSOM), coated tapered optical fibers (NSOM) Nanoantennas: plasmon resonance coupling Nanopartice arrays, Pairs of nanoparticles

Hecht, JPC 112, 7761 (2000)

Produce greatly enhanced fields upon laser excitation (up to 103), confined to regions ~20nm, significantly defeating diffraction limits: ~ 300 nm microscopy, SERS, lithography Rechberger, Opt. Comm. 220 (2003) 137141
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Near-field optical lithography

Achieve ~ / 10 resolution by focusing femtosecond laser beam onto Au coated AFM tip in close proximity to SU-8. Two-photon polymerization occurs in SU-8 over confined regions due to local enhancement of electric field by surface plasmons on AFM tip.

Yin et. al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 81 3663 (2002)

Bow-tie Nanoantennas
103 field enhancement to <30 nm regions 10% efficiency (define) vs ~10-5 for NSOM

Effects: -Plasmon resonance in each triangle -Coupling across gap

Au triangles on ITO (fabrication in [1])

Finite difference time domain (FDTD) for computation of [3]: - intensity enhancement - scattering efficiency - resonant wavelengths
- ~103 enhancement of incident intensity - confined to 650 nm2 region [1] Schuck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 017402 (2005) [2] Fromm et al., Nano Lett. 4, 957 (2004) [3] Sundaramurthy et al., Physical Rev. B, 72 165409 (2005)

Bow-tie Fabrication
Au ~80 nm 16 - 40 nm

Define with e-beam lithography

~75 nm ~4 nm

SU-8 Au Ti sticking layer ITO substrate

~20 nm

Measured with TPPL [Schuck] Sundaramurthy et al., Nano Letters, 6 355-360 (2006) Schuck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 017402 (2005)

Exposure of SU-8 on bowties

Focus beam to diffraction-limited spot With 1.3 NA 100x obvective lens Exposure powers: 27W 10 mW SU-8

polarizer, beam-splitter

Excitation source: Ti:sapphire laser 120 fs, f = 75 MHz = 800 nm

Sundaramurthy et al., Nano Letters, 6 355-360 (2006) Sundaramurthy et al., Physical Rev. B, 72 165409 (2005)

Measured with TIR microscopy

AFM / SEM of exposed SU-8

Nano-lithography: - Exposure + develop, bow-tie nanoantennas covered with SU-8 AFM: At high exposure powers, SU-8 ablation at bow-ties SU-8 TPP away from bow-ties

TPP only at bow-tie gap

Blanket TPP No TPP TPP in vicinity of bow-tie

Sundaramurthy et al., Nano Letters, 6 355-360 (2006)

AFM of exposed SU-8

Nano-lithography: - Exposure + develop, bow-tie nanoantennas covered with SU-8

Au bow-ties capture energy of diffraction limited spot and concentrate it at two small areas near the gap, exceeding exposure threshold. record 30 nm features with near-field lithography using record low power of 27 W

Sundaramurthy et al., Nano Letters, 6 355-360 (2006)

Theory- FDTD
J D = j E
J m = j ( r 1) 0 E
displacement current in gap
16nm gap 0.13 A peak

current in metal region

r = (n + ik ) 2 frequency dependant (RIT) Z0 J 2 2 Wrad = ( kd ) far-field radiation power 2 48

W C scat = rad scattering cross-section I 2 Einc I= incident power 2Z 0

500nm gap 0.05 A peak

Qscat

C scat = Area

scattering efficiency

Sundaramurthy et al., Physical Rev. B, 72 165409 (2005)

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Theory- FDTD
The FDTD simulations predict an intensity enhancement of 107 at 4 nm above each of the triangle tips exposed at 27 W, in good agreement with experimental value of 150 from experiment.

FDTD Calculated enhancement peaks occur within 4 nm of SU-8 peak locations from AFM measurement.

Sundaramurthy et al., Nano Letters, 6 355-360 (2006)

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Conclusion
- large electric-field enhancement in highly confined regions at tips of gold bow-tie nanoantennas - Allows for local exposure of SU-8 resist to record low dimensions (<30nm) using record low power (~27 W) - Intensity enhancement thought to be due to coupling of plasmon resonance at tips of triangles, as suggested by theoretical modeling.

Thank you!

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