FDTD simulation on laser-induced enhancement of electric field in the near-field apertureless probe system

Laser processing has gained wide-spread use in cutting and drilling at micro scales. However, it is difficult for laser processing to make breakthrough of optical diffraction limit. In this article, a method of surface micro-processing based on laser-induced electric field enhancement in the near-field apertureless probe system is introduced. The enhancement was simulated by using a Finite Difference Time Domain-algorithm-based model. Characters of probe materials, probe geometric characters, laser incident angle and distances between the probe and the substrate were studied in order to understand mechanism of the enhancement. A strong correlation between the intensity and the working parameters was observed, which paves the way to optimize experimental conditions and parameters in the manufacturing process. Due to the strongly-enhanced electric field in laser processing, micrometer and nanometer scale processing can be reached. [GRAPHICS] (C) 2012 by Astro, Ltd.