Improved Near Field Lithography by Surface Plasmon Resonance

摘要

Conventionally, the finest pattern obtained in optical lithography is determined by wavelength and numerical aperture of optical system, due to diffraction effect. This principle delivers theoretical obstacles for nano lithography using conventional light source, like Hg lamp. According to theory, this obstacle can be circumvented with near field lithography (NFL) technique, just by confining the mask and photo resist into sub-wavelength dimensions. Sub-wavelength patterns with features down to 100nm can be realized in the NFL, as demonstrated numerically and experimentally in many papers. One obvious problem associated with NFL is that low efficiency in the lithography process, since it is difficult to transmit through sub-wavelength scaled apertures in the mask. This usually results in the deleterious effect to the patterns on photo resist. In this paper, we demonstrate that the extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) effect helps to solve this problem. It is found that noble metal, instead of chromium, usually gives much greater transmission when employed as mask material. The enhancement is contributed to resonant excitation of surface plasmon mode. Further, the transmission can be enhanced by appropriately design of patterns. The polarization of illumination light affects lithography efficiency as well. As illustrative examples, mask patterns like lines group, grating structure and holes array are designed and simulated with greatly improved lithography efficiency. This method is believed to have potential applications in nano lithography.