Holographic control of motive shape in plasmonic nanogap arrays

Here we demonstrate that 4-beam holographic lithography can be utilized to create plasmonic nanogaps that are 70 times smaller than the laser wavelength (488 nm). This was achieved by controlling phase, polarization, and laser beam intensity in order to tune the relative spacing of the two sublattices in the interference pattern of a compound-lattice in combination with the nonlinear resist response. Exemplarily, twin and triplet motive features were designed and patterned into polymer in a single exposure step and then transferred into gold nanogap arrays resulting in an average gap size of 22 nm and smallest features down to 7 nm. These results extend the utility of high-throughput, wafer-scale holographic lithography into the realm of nanoplasmonics.