A new technique, optical near-field photochemical vapour deposition (NFO-PC
VD) enables maskless production of nanometric structures with controllable
size, chemical composition and morphology By placing a near-field optical m
icroscope inside the reaction chamber for photochemical vapour deposition w
e have deposited nanoscale metal patterns, We demonstrate for the first tim
e, successfully deposited in the near-field region, lines of metallic zinc
with the observed stripe width of 20 nm.