Near field optical nano patterning on azobenzene based photoresponsive molecular glass

Near field optical nano patterning was investigated using azobenzene based amorphous molecular glass material, which shows fast response to the light and higher diffraction efficiency for short irradiation time compared to common azo polymers. Optical patterning was performed using NSOM equipped with a He-Cd laser as the light source and a cantilever with 100 nm aperture diameter. Macroscopic motion of photoresponsive materials containing azobenzene groups was useful to fabricate the well defined nano structures such as dots and line array without nanomask and development process by control of irradiation time and scan speed.