Roller nanoimprint lithography for low-cost nanoscale random lattice diffractive optical elements

Abstract Augmented reality (AR) enhancing the existing natural environment by overlaying a virtual world is an emerging and growing market and attracts huge commercial interest into optical devices which can be implemented into head-mounted AR equipment. Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are considered as the most promising candidate to meet the market’s requirements such as compactness, low-cost, and reliability. Hence, they allow building alternatives to large display headsets for virtual reality (VR) by lightweight glasses. Soft lithography replication offers a pathway to the fabrication of large area DOEs with high aspect ratios, multilevel features, and critical dimensions below the diffractive optical limit down to 50 nm also in the scope of mass manufacturing. In combination with tailored UV-curable photopolymers, the fabrication time can be drastically reduced making it very appealing to industrial applications. Here, we illustrate the key features of high efficiency DOEs and how the SMILE (SUSS MicroTec Imprint Lithography Equipment) technique can be used with advanced imprint photopolymers to obtain high quality binary DOEs meeting the market’s requirements providing a very versatile tool to imprint both nano- and microstructures.

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Laser Power Characterization Method for Fabrication of Centrosymmetric CR-DOEs Mask

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.53-54.337 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 53-54 ◽

pp. 337-342

Author(s):

Duo Shu Wang ◽

Chong Tai Luo ◽

Tao Chen ◽

Yu Qing Xiong ◽

Hong Kai Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Laser Power ◽

Low Cost ◽

Chromatic Aberration ◽

Diffractive Optical Elements ◽

Direct Writing ◽

Laser Direct Writing ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Short Period ◽

Diffractive Efficiency ◽

Mask Fabrication

With high diffractive efficiency, Continuous Relief Diffractive Optical Elements (CR-DOE) can be used to eliminate chromatic aberration, partial aberration and simplify optical system. The technology for CR-DOE with Laser Direct Writing method has advantages of simple process, short period and low cost. The paper studied on the characterization method of laser power for the technology. The principle of mask fabrication of CR-DOE by Laser Direct Writing is described in the paper. The relations between microstructure depth and laser power, exposing position radius and laser power were studied. The results showed that microstructure depth changes in direct ratio to laser power and laser power should change in direct to exposing position radius while several same depth microstructures were fabricated at different radius. At the end, the paper gave the charactering method and also fabricated the mask of a kind of centrosymmetric continuous relief diffractive focus lens with the method.

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Soret Fishnet Metalens Antenna

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/srep09988 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Bakhtiyar Orazbayev ◽

Miguel Beruete ◽

Víctor Pacheco-Peña ◽

Gonzalo Crespo ◽

Jorge Teniente ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Focal Length ◽

Low Cost ◽

Diffractive Optical Elements ◽

Fresnel Reflection ◽

Radiation Characteristics ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Compact Antenna ◽

Radar Systems ◽

W Band ◽

Low Profile

Abstract At the expense of frequency narrowing, binary amplitude-only diffractive optical elements emulate refractive lenses without the need of large profiles. Unfortunately, they also present larger Fresnel reflection loss than conventional lenses. This is usually tackled by implementing unattractive cumbersome designs. Here we demonstrate that simplicity is not at odds with performance and we show how the fishnet metamaterial can improve the radiation pattern of a Soret lens. The building block of this advanced Soret lens is the fishnet metamaterial operating in the near-zero refractive index regime with one of the edge layers designed with alternating opaque and transparent concentric rings made of subwavelength holes. The hybrid Soret fishnet metalens retains all the merits of classical Soret lenses such as low profile, low cost and ease of manufacturing. It is designed for the W-band of the millimeter-waves range with a subwavelength focal length FL = 1.58 mm (0.5λ0) aiming at a compact antenna or radar systems. The focal properties of the lens along with its radiation characteristics in a lens antenna configuration have been studied numerically and confirmed experimentally, showing a gain improvement of ~2 dB with respect to a fishnet Soret lens without the fishnet metamaterial.

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Manufacturing of Glass Diffractive Optical Elements by Use of Precision Compression Molding Process

ASME 2007 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference ◽

10.1115/msec2007-31210 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Yang Chen ◽

Allen Y. Yi ◽

Fritz Klocke ◽

Guido Pongs

Keyword(s):

Glassy Carbon ◽

Optical Glass ◽

Low Cost ◽

High Volume ◽

Compression Molding ◽

Diffractive Optical Elements ◽

Molding Process ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Atomic Force ◽

Optical Profilometer

Recent advances in compression molding process offer a potential high volume precision net shape fabrication method for micro and diffractive glass optical elements. In this research, glass diffractive optical elements with lateral features in the order of 2 μm and a vertical height of about 500 nm were fabricated using glassy carbon molds and BK-7 optical glass material. Glassy carbon molds used in this research were fabricated with traditional cleanroom lithography and reactive ion etching process. Compression mold process was performed to duplicate the diffractive structures onto optical glass surface. Molded glass diffractive elements were studied using an atomic force microscope and a Veeco optical profilometer to evaluate the accuracy of replication and the capacity of the molding process. Different molding process parameters were tested to improve the molding process. The experimental results showed that the compression molding process is an effective alternative fabricating method for high volume, net shape and low cost glass diffractive optical elements.

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New micro and nano laser machining applications with a versatile ultrashort pulse laser system and diffractive optical elements

International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics ◽

10.2351/1.5062959 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Erwin Steiger ◽

Thomas Schonlau ◽

Siegfried Pause

Keyword(s):

Pulse Laser ◽

Ultrashort Pulse ◽

Laser System ◽

Laser Machining ◽

Diffractive Optical Elements ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Ultrashort Pulse Laser ◽

Ultrashort Pulse Laser System

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Frequency Division Multiplexing of Terahertz Waves Realized by Diffractive Optical Elements

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11146246 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (14) ◽

pp. 6246

Author(s):

Paweł Komorowski ◽

Patrycja Czerwińska ◽

Mateusz Kaluza ◽

Mateusz Surma ◽

Przemysław Zagrajek ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Frequency Division Multiplexing ◽

Diffractive Optical Elements ◽

Frequency Division ◽

Terahertz Waves ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Telecommunication Systems ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Future ◽

Wireless Telecommunication ◽

Finite Distance

Recently, one of the most commonly discussed applications of terahertz radiation is wireless telecommunication. It is believed that the future 6G systems will utilize this frequency range. Although the exact technology of future telecommunication systems is not yet known, it is certain that methods for increasing their bandwidth should be investigated in advance. In this paper, we present the diffractive optical elements for the frequency division multiplexing of terahertz waves. The structures have been designed as a combination of a binary phase grating and a converging diffractive lens. The grating allows for differentiating the frequencies, while the lens assures separation and focusing at the finite distance. Designed structures have been manufactured from polyamide PA12 using the SLS 3D printer and verified experimentally. Simulations and experimental results are shown for different focal lengths. Moreover, parallel data transmission is shown for two channels of different carrier frequencies propagating in the same optical path. The designed structure allowed for detecting both signals independently without observable crosstalk. The proposed diffractive elements can work in a wide range of terahertz and sub-terahertz frequencies, depending on the design assumptions. Therefore, they can be considered as an appealing solution, regardless of the band finally used by the future telecommunication systems.

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Nanooptical elements for visual verification

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-81950-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Goncharsky ◽

Anton Goncharsky ◽

Dmitry Melnik ◽

Svyatoslav Durlevich

Keyword(s):

Electron Beam ◽

Electron Beam Lithography ◽

Mass Production ◽

Optical Element ◽

Visual Image ◽

Zero Order ◽

Diffractive Optical Elements ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Standard Equipment ◽

Diffractive Element

AbstractThis paper focuses on the development of flat diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for protecting banknotes, documents, plastic cards, and securities against counterfeiting. A DOE is a flat diffractive element whose microrelief, when illuminated by white light, forms a visual image consisting of several symbols (digits or letters), which move across the optical element when tilted. The images formed by these elements are asymmetric with respect to the zero order. To form these images, the microrelief of a DOE must itself be asymmetric. The microrelief has a depth of ~ 0.3 microns and is shaped with an accuracy of ~ 10–15 nm using electron-beam lithography. The DOEs developed in this work are securely protected against counterfeiting and can be replicated hundreds of millions of times using standard equipment meant for the mass production of relief holograms.

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High laser induced damage threshold photoresists for nano-imprint and 3D multi-photon lithography

Nanophotonics ◽

10.1515/nanoph-2021-0263 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Elmina Kabouraki ◽

Vasileia Melissinaki ◽

Amit Yadav ◽

Andrius Melninkaitis ◽

Konstantina Tourlouki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nanoimprint Lithography ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Damage Threshold ◽

Laser Pulses ◽

Intense Laser ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Photonic Circuits ◽

Future Production ◽

Intense Laser Pulses ◽

Laser Induced Damage

Abstract Optics manufacturing technology is predicted to play a major role in the future production of integrated photonic circuits. One of the major drawbacks in the realization of photonic circuits is the damage of optical materials by intense laser pulses. Here, we report on the preparation of a series of organic–inorganic hybrid photoresists that exhibit enhanced laser-induced damage threshold. These photoresists showed to be candidates for the fabrication of micro-optical elements (MOEs) using three-dimensional multiphoton lithography. Moreover, they demonstrate pattern ability by nanoimprint lithography, making them suitable for future mass production of MOEs.

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