Near-field two-photon optical lithography is demonstrated by using ∼120 fs laser pulses at 790 nm in an apertureless near-field optical microscope, which produces lithographic features with ∼70 nm resolution. The technique takes advantage of the field enhancement at the extremity of a metallic probe to induce nanoscale two-photon absorption and polymerization in a commercial photoresist, SU-8. Even without optimization of the resist or laser pulses, the spatial resolution of this technique is as high as λ/10, nearly a factor of 2 better than techniques based on far field two-photon lithography.

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