Abstract

Surface-confined electromagnetic fields have been shown to play an important role in the interaction of light with adsorbed molecular layers, entering into such phenomena as surface-enhanced Raman scattering and surface-enhanced photochemistry. We show that the interference of two UV laser beams during surface photodecomposition leads to resonant growth of submicrometer metal gratings. The phenomena can be viewed as nonlinear-optical mixing with the growth rate having a gain that is dependent on the spatial frequency of two interferring beams.

© 1984 Optical Society of America