SURFACE MODIFICATION AND PATTERNING OF CONJUGATED POLYMERS WITH NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL MICROSCOPY

Communication: Near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) has been used to write and read images on a conjugated polymer film-such as tha t in the Figure-with a resolution of similar to 0.1 mu m, clearly brea king the diffraction limit. It is demonstrated that photo-oxidation pr ocesses produce the contrast and that NSOM has the potential to contro l the photochemistry of a conjugated polymer at the nanometer scale.