Apparatus and method of direct writing with photons beyond the diffraction limit using two-color resist

A direct-write lithography apparatus for forming in a two-color photoresist layer on a substrate sub-resolution photoresist pixels, wherein the two-color photoresist layer includes photo-molecules, comprising:

• an illumination system configured to provide an illumination light having a wavelength capable of exciting the photo-molecules in the two-color photoresist to form excited-state photo-molecules;
• at least one image transducer having an array of configurable transducer pixels arranged to receive and selectively modulate the illumination light;
• an objective lens arranged to receive the modulated illumination light from the at least one image transducer and form on the two-color photoresist layer a transducer image having an arrangement of bright spots, with each bright spot having a first size and being formed by a corresponding activated transducer pixel;
• a stage that movably supports the substrate;
• an inhibition image generator arranged relative to the objective lens and adapted to operate in combination with the objective lens to generate at the two-color photoresist an inhibition image from inhibition light having an inhibition wavelength that causes excited-state photo-molecules to transition to an unexcited state that is not susceptible to conversion to an irreversible exposed state, wherein the inhibition image includes an array of dark spots;
• and
• wherein the array of dark spots are aligned with the bright spots and are smaller than the bright spots so that a portion of the excited-state photo-molecules adjacent the periphery of the bright spots absorb the inhibition radiation and transition to the unexcited state, while a portion of the excited photo-molecules at the center of the bright spots are not exposed to the inhibition light and transition to an irreversible exposed state, thereby forming in the two-color photoresist a set of sub-resolution photoresist pixels each having a size smaller than would be formed in the absence of the dark spots.