Subdiffraction-limited milling by an optically driven single gold nanoparticle.

We propose and demonstrate a hybrid lithographic technique capable of nanopatterning surfaces by optothermal decomposition of a polymeric film induced by a single metal nanoparticle. A tightly focused laser beam exerting a strong optical force onto the nanoparticle is used to move it inside the polymer film. Due to efficient plasmonic absorption of the laser light, the nanoparticle is heated up to temperatures of several hundred degrees, causing melting or even thermal decomposition of the polymer film. By this method, grooves less than 100 nm wide and tens of micrometers long can be directly milled in a polymer layer.