Writing subwavelength-sized structures into aluminium films by thermo-chemical aperture-less near-field optical microscopy

An optical near-field at the tip of an atomic force microscope probe is utilised to pattern aluminium thin films on glass substrates by photo-thermally induced corrosion in water. Aluminium forms a thin passivating oxide layer when immersed into neutral water at room temperature. Owing to the high energy density of the near-field, the metal below the probe tip can be heated to 100°C due to absorption of the light, which then provokes breakdown of the passivation and metal corrosion. The localised near-field is generated by tip-induced enhancement of an evanescent field originating from a laser beam, that is totally internally reflected at the glass–aluminium–water interface. The process is governed by surface plasmons excited in the aluminium film by the evanescent waves and the field enhancement of the probe tip. Holes of 40 nm diameter and lines below 100 nm width have been written into a 20-nm-thick aluminium film. Applications of the scanning probe lithography process may include the one-step fabrication of point contacts or contact masks for near-field optical lithography and reactive ion etching.