Optical near-field enhancement around lithographic metallic nanostructures using an azo-dye polymer: direct observation and realization of sub-wavelength complex structures

Christophe Hubert (1) , Serguei Kochtcheev (2) , Gilles Lerondel (2) , Alexandre Vial (2) , Renaud Bachelot (2) , Pascal Royer (2) , Anna Rumyantseva (2) , Johan Grand (3) , Laurent Billot (2) , Gilbert Chang , Stephen Gray (4) , Gary Wiederrecht (5) , George Schatz (6)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien [Saint Etienne]
2 LNIO - Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique
3 ITODYS (UMR_7086) - Interfaces, Traitements, Organisation et Dynamique des Systèmes
4 Center for Nanoscale Materials
5 ANL - Argonne National Laboratory [Lemont]
6 Missouri Botanical Garden

We report on the direct observation of optical near-field enhancement around metallic nanoparticles. We used an easy to set up approach which consists in irradiating a photosensitive azo-dye polymer film spin-coated on metallic nanostructures. Photoinduced topographical modifications of the polymer film surface are characterized after irradiation by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Comparisons between AFM images and numerical simulations show that these photo-induced topography agrees with the near-field intensity distribution around the nanostructures. The possibility of generating complex structures is demonstrated.

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Optics / Photonic

Christophe Hubert, Serguei Kochtcheev, Gilles Lerondel, Alexandre Vial, Renaud Bachelot, et al.. Optical near-field enhancement around lithographic metallic nanostructures using an azo-dye polymer: direct observation and realization of sub-wavelength complex structures. MRS Fall meeting, Nov 2004, Boston, United States. ⟨10.1557/PROC-838-O5.2⟩. ⟨hal-02463107⟩