Laser-induced implantation of organic molecules into sub-micrometer regions of polymer surfaces

Organic molecules adhered to the point of a micropipette were transferred o nto the surface of a polymer film by pulsed laser light guided through a qu artz optical fiber which was inserted into the micropipette. Controlled by a high-resolution piezoelectric driver designed for scanning probe microsco py, the distance between the micropipette point and the polymer surface was kept to a few tens of nm. After laser irradiation, the deposited molecules on the polymer surface were examined with optical transmission, fluorescen ce, atomic force, and scanning near-field optical microscopy. It was demons trated that various kinds of organic molecules can be implanted into sub-mi crometer regions at the surfaces of polymer films without their decompositi on. The hypothetical mechanism of the molecular transfer is discussed in re lation to the morphology of crystalline molecules adhered at the micropipet te apertures.