Surface modification and patterning of conjugated polymers with near‐field optical microscopy

Near‐field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) has been used to write and read images on a conjugated polymer film—such as that in the Figure–with a resolution of ∼ 0.1 μm, clearly breaking the diffraction limit. It is demonstrated that photo‐oxidation processes produce the contrast and that NSOM has the potential to control the photochemistry of a conjugated polymer at the nanometer scale. magnified image