アゾベンゼン分子薄膜の近接場光加工とサブミクロン物質の配列制御(薄膜プロセス・材料,一般)  [in Japanese] Alignment control of submicron materials using azobenzene molecular film fabricated by optical near-field  [in Japanese]

物質近傍に局在する近接場光は、光波長以下のナノメートル領域における物質の微細加工や、これを用いた光近接場の励起と輸送制御による高速・高機能な光制御素子への応用が期待されている。これらを実現するためには、外部光で制御可能な物質配列法の開発が重要な要素技術となる。本研究では、エバネッセント定在波でアゾベンゼン分子薄膜を簡便に光微細加工し、これを下地層に用いたサブミクロン物質の配列制御法の開発を行った。特に、格子状に加工されたアゾ薄膜を用いた誘電体微小球の配列制御、および、光追加工による微小球の位置制御について調べた。また、斜方蒸着法により作製した金属ナノワイヤとこれにより発現する近接場光学特性も調べたので報告する。

Optical near-fields localizing near a material surface provide us the novel technologies of material fabrication in nano meter regions. This is applicable to the excitation- and transportation-control of optical near field signals, and expected to develop a high-speed and highly-functional device which is never achievable by the conventional optical technology. For a practical optical-device operation, it is very important to develop the modification method of nano material alignment controlled by the external optical-signals. In this study, we demonstrate an alignment control of sub-micron materials using the optically controllable photo-alignment layers fabricated simply by the standing evanescent waves. Dielectric small spheres were periodically aligned on the grating structures of azobenzene molecular films. The vertical positions were controlled by the rewriting processes using the optical near-fields around the small spheres. Furthermore, we investigated the local plasmon excitations on the metallic nano-wires fabricated by an oblique evaporation on the azobenzene gratings.