Nanolithography in the evanescent near-field by using gain-assisted meta-materials system

Surface Plasmon polaritons are electromagnetic waves that propagate along the surface of a conductor, usually a metal. It is shown that the gain-assisted metamaterial can compensate for the intrinsic absorption loss in metal. In this paper, the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons on gain-assist metamaterial system is investigated. As an example, nanolithography has been considered by using optical proximity exposure in the evanescent near field of gain-assisted metamaterial layer. The evanescent waves carried the detailed information of the object which was defined by the high space frequency of the mask. With the enhancement of surface plasmon polaritons and gain-assisted metamaterials system, the evanescent waves can be propagated to a relatively far distance. Numerical computations by finite element analysis shows that better optimization of the gain-assisted metamaterials system can further improve the resolution. Experiments will be developed to prove the simulation by using a modified i-line aligner. The computation result shows it will be an alternative nanolithography technique for the next generation lithography.