NANOWRITING ON FERROELECTRIC SURFACES WITH A SCANNING NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL MICROSCOPE

We use a scanning near-field optical microscope in illumination mode w ith a metal-coated optical-fiber tip to write, at ambient conditions, nanolines on triglycine sulfate ferroelectric surfaces. Our experiment s show that, in spite of the cutoff, the outcoming light intensity is sufficient to modify locally the triglycine sulfate surface. We presen t images that show that, with this method, linewidths as small as 60 n m can be achieved that are stable over several days. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America