Patterning via optical saturable transitions--fabrication and characterization.

This protocol describes the fabrication and characterization of nanostructures using a novel nanolithographic technique called Patterning via Optical Saturable Transitions (POST). In this technique the chemical properties of organic photochromic molecules that undergo single-photon reactions are exploited, enabling rapid top-down nanopatterning over large areas at low light intensities, thereby, allowing for the circumvention of the far-field diffraction barrier.(4) Simple, cost-effective, high throughput and resolution alternatives to nanopatterning are being explored, such as, two-photon polymerization(5,6), beam pen lithography (BPL)(7), scanning electron beam lithography (SEBL), and focused ion beam (FIB) patterning. However, multi-photon approaches require high light intensities, which limit their potential for high throughput and offer low image contrast. Although, electron and ion beam lithographic processes offer increased resolution, the serial nature of the process is limited to slow writing speeds, which also prevents patterning of features over large areas. Beam-pen lithography is an approach towards parallel near-field optical lithography. However, the gap between the source of the beam and the surface of the photoresist needs to be controlled extremely precisely for good pattern uniformity and this is very challenging to accomplish for large arrays of beams. Patterning via Optical Saturable Transitions (POST) is an alternative optical nanopatterning technique for patterning sub-wavelength features(1-3). Since this technique uses single photons instead of electrons, it is extremely fast and does not require high light intensities(1-3), opening the door to massive parallelization.