The influence of ambient oxygen on blinking (on–off transitions) of individual terrylenediimide (TDI) molecules is investigated by confocal microscopy. The authors show that the “on‐times”—during which the fluorescence intensity is above a certain threshold—are shortened significantly in ambient air compared to in nitrogen. The “off‐times” are virtually unaffected. In addition, it is shown that single TDI molecules embedded in a polymer film show much longer “on‐times” and fewer “blinks” than those adsorbed on a glass surface.

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SummaryA general concept for parallel near-field photochemical and radiation-induced chemical processes for the fabrication of nanopatterns of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) is explored with three different processes: 1) a near-field photochemical process by photochemical bleaching of a monomolecular layer of dye molecules chemically bound to an APTES SAM, 2) a chemical process induced by oxygen plasma etching as well as 3) a combined near-field UV-photochemical and ozone-induced chemical process, which is applied directly to an APTES SAM. All approaches employ a sandwich configuration of the surface-supported SAM, and a lithographic mask in form of gold nanostructures fabricated through colloidal sphere lithography (CL), which is either exposed to visible light, oxygen plasma or an UV–ozone atmosphere. The gold mask has the function to inhibit the photochemical reactions by highly localized near-field interactions between metal mask and SAM and to inhibit the radiation-induced chemical reactions by casting a highly localized shadow. The removal of the gold mask reveals the SAM nanopattern.