Using a cantilever type nanoprobe having a 100㎚m aperture at the apex of the pyramidal tip of a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM), nanopatterning of polymer films are conducted. Two different types of polymer, namely a positive photoresist (DPR-i5500) and an azopolymer (Poly disperse orange-3), spincoated on a silicon wafer are used as the substrate. A He-Cd laser with a wavelength of 442㎚ is employed as the illumination source. The optical near-field produced at the tip of the nanoprobe induces a photochemical reaction on the irradiated region, leading to the fabrication of nanostructures below the diffraction limit of the laser light. By controlling the process parameters properly, nanopatterns as small as 100㎚ are produced on both the photoresist and azopolymer samples. The shape and size variations of the nanopatterns are examined with respect to the key process parameters such as laser beam power, irradiation time or scanning speed of the probe, operation modes of the NSOM (DC and AC modes), etc. The characteristic features during the fabrication of ordered structures such as dot or line arrays using NSOM lithography are investigated. Not only the direct writing of nano array structures on the polymer films but also the fabrication of NSOM-written patterns on the silicon substrate were investigated by introducing a passivation layer over the silicon surface. Possible application of thereby developed NSOM lithography technology to the fabrication of data storage is discussed.