Imaging and Writing 3D Polymer Nanostructures with Visible Light*

Developments in far-field microscopy have enabled imaging at nanoscale resolutions using visible light. This circumvention of the diffraction limit opens the benefits of optical microscopy to polymer systems at the relevant nanometer length scales. Three dimensional images of spatial crosslink heterogeneities in colloidal and bulk hydrogels using a model system of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) containing a fluorophore tagged crosslinker will be used to exemplify the potential for super resolution microscopy to advance the polymer sciences. Progress in the application of photochromic gels towards achieving super resolution interference lithography will also be presented.