• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2005

Using a cantilever type nanoprobe having a 100㎚m aperture at the apex of the pyramidal tip of a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM), nanopatterning of polymer films are conducted. Two different types of polymer, namely a positive photoresist (DPR-i5500) and an azopolymer (Poly disperse orange-3), spincoated on a silicon wafer are used as the substrate. A He-Cd laser with a wavelength of 442㎚ is employed as the illumination source. The optical near-field produced at the tip of the nanoprobe induces a photochemical reaction on the irradiated region, leading to the fabrication of nanostructures below the diffraction limit of the laser light. By controlling the process parameters properly, nanopatterns as small as 100㎚ are produced on both the photoresist and azopolymer samples. The shape and size variations of the nanopatterns are examined with respect to the key process parameters such as laser beam power, irradiation time or scanning speed of the probe, operation modes of the NSOM (DC and AC modes), etc. The characteristic features during the fabrication of ordered structures such as dot or line arrays using NSOM lithography are investigated. Not only the direct writing of nano array structures on the polymer films but also the fabrication of NSOM-written patterns on the silicon substrate were investigated by introducing a passivation layer over the silicon surface. Possible application of thereby developed NSOM lithography technology to the fabrication of data storage is discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.590-595
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• 2004

The shape and size variations of the nanopatterns produced on a positive photoresist using a near-field scanning optical microscope(NSOM) are investigated with respect to the process variables. A cantilever type nanoprobe having a 100nm aperture at the apex of the pyramidal tip is used with the NSOM and a He-Cd laser at a wavelength of 442nm as the illumination source. Patterning characteristics are examined for different laser beam power at the entrance side of the aperture( $P_{in}$ ), scan speed of the piezo stage(V), repeated scanning over the same pattern, and operation modes of the NSOM(DC and AC modes). The pattern size remained almost the same for equal linear energy density. Pattern size decreased for lower laser beam power and greater scan speed, leading to a minimum pattern width of around 50nm at $P_{in}$ =1.2$\mu$W and V=12$\mu$m/. Direct writing of an arbitrary pattern with a line width of about 150nm was demonstrated to verify the feasibility of this technique for nanomask fabrication. Application on high-density data storage using azopolymer is discussed at the end.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.532-538
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• 2008

Epoxy-based azopolymers were synthesized by the reaction of the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) or N,N-diglycidyl aniline (DGA) with disperse orange 3 (DO3) to give poly(DGEBA-co-DO3) or poly(DGA-co-DO3), respectively. Aniline-based azopolymers prepared from poly(DGA-co-An) precursors, synthesized by the reaction of DGA with aniline, were produced by the post-azo coupling reaction with diazonium salts containing various substituents. Holographic gratings were carried out to measure the diffractive efficiencies (DE) for the interference patterns of the $Ar^+$ laser from 50 to $300\;mW/cm^2$ intensity. The shorter repeating unit with higher chromophore density induced deeper surface relief gratings (SRG). Large surface gratings were observed for the aniline-based azopolymers with -COOH substituents, as compared with those for epoxy-based azopolymers. The aniline-based azopolymers with dimerized chromophores and various substituents were also synthesized to observe the effect of chromophore substituents and dimerization on the holography. The dimerized chromophores were more sensitively photoisomerized by the $Ar^+$ laser beam, and demonstrated a larger grating than that with one azo bond.