Abstract: A pillar-nanoantenna array structure is fabricated with a substrate to which pairs of pillars are coupled, where the pillars are characterized either by a thermal conductance less than 0.1 ?W/deg or by transparency and a height exceeding thickness by at least a factor of two. Metallic caps atop a neighboring pair of pillars are separated by no more than 50 nm. An image-capture structure may be formed by modifying reflectance of a portion of the structure by heating of the portion by electromagnetic radiation. The array may be plastically deformed by raster scanning an electron beam across the array, exciting plasmon modes in the conducting particles thereby inducing a gradient force between neighboring conducting particles, and deforming neighboring pillars in such a manner as to vary the spacing separating neighboring conducting particles. A technique of plasmon-assisted etching provides for fabricating specified planar pattern of metal outside a cleanroom environment.

Abstract: A pillar-nanoantenna array structure is fabricated with a substrate to which pairs of pillars are coupled, where the pillars are characterized either by a thermal conductance less than 0.1 ?W/deg or by transparency and a height exceeding thickness by at least a factor of two. Metallic caps atop a neighboring pair of pillars are separated by no more than 50 nm. An image-capture structure may be formed by modifying reflectance of a portion of the structure by heating of the portion by electromagnetic radiation. The array may be plastically deformed by raster scanning an electron beam across the array, exciting plasmon modes in the conducting particles thereby inducing a gradient force between neighboring conducting particles, and deforming neighboring pillars in such a manner as to vary the spacing separating neighboring conducting particles. A technique of plasmon-assisted etching provides for fabricating specified planar pattern of metal outside a cleanroom environment.