Photopolymerization induced by optical field enhancement in the vicinity of a conducting tip under laser illumination

We introduce a method of local photopolymerization in the submicrometer sca le. The source used is a metallic tip whose extremity presents a strong loc alized optical near-field enhancement (FE) when the tip is illuminated by a laser beam suitably polarized. The FE permits the polymerization threshold dose to be locally exceeded at the tip extremity while the threshold is no t reached elsewhere. By this method the formation of micronic/nanometric po lymer dots has been demonstrated. The preliminary results presented here va lidate experimentally the concept of the local optical source issued from a conducting tip.