Light irradiation through small particles and its applications for surface nanostructuring in near field

Abstract

We investigate the light scattering through small particles and its applications in nanostructuring, such as nanobumping, nanopatterning and dry laser cleaning. The theoretical calculation based on Mie theory provides an exact solution for sphere cavity resonance and plasmon resonance, which are two mechanisms for dielectric and metallic particles assisted surface nanostructuring in near field. The experimental results indicate that nanobumps on glass surface and subwavelength holes array on silicon surface can be formed without cracks with the self-assembly of 1 μm silica particle mask under laser irradiation. It is also found that the scattering wave by 40 nm gold particles can propagate 200 times away in terms of particle radius as recorded by photoresist under the UV light irradiation. Meanwhile, dry laser cleaning of 40 nm gold particle on silicon wafer is demonstrated at plasmonic resonance frequency. The total cleaning efficiency is estimated to be 80%. ©2007 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd.