Plasmonic Nanofabrication by Long-Range Excitation Transfer via DNA Nanowire

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 1505 - 1511
• Main Authors: Wirth, J, Garwe, F, Hähnel, G, Csáki, A, Jahr, N, Stranik, O, Paa, W, Fritzsche, W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 13-04-2011
• Subjects: Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations); Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; DNA - chemistry; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Exact sciences and technology; Materials science; Materials Testing; Methods of nanofabrication; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanolithography; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanostructures - ultrastructure; Particle Size; Physics; Polymethyl Methacrylate - chemistry; Quantum wires; Surface and interface electron states; Surface Plasmon Resonance - methods; silver nanoparticle; plasmonic particle; femtosecond laser pulse; DNA; Electron resists; Lithography; Microelectronics; AND circuit; Nanoelectronics; Nanoparticles; Silver; Nanofabrication; Electron beams; Laser pulse; PMMA; Optical method; Plasmons; Nanowires; Nanostructured materials; Nanoantenna
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl104269x

Driven by the demand for ongoing integration and increased complexity of today’s microelectronic circuits, smaller and smaller structures need to be fabricated with a high throughput. In contrast to serial nanofabrication techniques, based, e.g., on electron beam or scanning probe methods, optical methods allow a parallel approach and thus a high throughput. However, they rarely reach the desired resolution. One example is plasmon lithography, which is limited by the utilized plasmonic metal structures. Here we show a new approach extending plasmonic lithography with the potential for a highly parallel nanofabrication with a higher level of complexity based on nanoantenna effects combined with molecular nanowires. Thereby femtosecond laser pulse light is converted by Ag nanoparticles into a high plasmonic excitation guided along attached DNA structures. An underlying poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) layer acting as an electron-sensitive resist is so structured along the former DNA position. This apparently DNA-guided effect leads to nanometer grooves reaching even micrometers away from the excited nanoparticle, representing a novel effect of long-range excitation transfer along DNA nanowires.