ABSTRACT
The use of an enhanced near field scattered around nanospheres and nanotips is an attractive method to strengthen the ability of laser processing, which overcomes its diffraction limit. In this chapter, we describe nanoablation processing using nanospheres and nanotips excited by pulsed laser irradiation. The combination of a near field and femtosecond laser illumination can demonstrate non-thermal and ultrafast near-field ablation processing on various kinds of materials, including transparent materials via multiphoton absorption processes. The technology of enhanced near field induced in the vicinity of nanospheres excited by femtosecond laser provides periodic nanohole arrays in air with high throughput. The nearfield coupling effect between adjacent nanospheres governs the magnitude of the field enhancement and the near-field distribution
on the material substrate to be processed. Nanoablation using small tips whose sizes are smaller than the incident wavelength is also described in this chapter. Finally, we discuss the nanoheater effect of the plasmonic nanoprocessing. The processing technology using near field around nanospheres and nanotips is smart and promising to fabricate surface nanostructures.
