Plasmon-based free-radical photopolymerization: effect of diffusion on nanolithography processes.

This Article interrogates the mechanisms responsible for nanoscale photopolymerization induced by confined and enhanced electromagnetic fields. Surface plasmon dipolar resonance of individual Ag nanoparticles was used as an optical near-field source to locally trigger the reaction of a photopolymerizable formulation. Laser excitation of the nanoparticles embedded in the formulation reproducibly generates polymer features with typical dimensions ranging from 2 nm to a few tens of nanometer.

Quantitative analysis of localized surface plasmons based on molecular probing.

We report on the quantitative characterization of the plasmonic optical near-field of a single silver nanoparticle. Our approach relies on nanoscale molecular molding of the confined electromagnetic field by photoactivated molecules. We were able to directly image the dipolar profile of the near-field distribution with a resolution better than 10 nm and to quantify the near-field depth and its enhancement factor.