Abstract
Real-time observation of three-dimensional (3D) information has great significance in nanotechnology. However, normal nanometer scale observation techniques, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning probe microscopy (SPM), have some problems to obtain 3D information because they lack non-destructive, intuitive, and fast imaging ability under normal conditions, and optical methods have not widely used in micro/nanometer shape reconstruction due to the practical requirements and the imaging limitations in micro/nano manipulation. In this paper, a high resolution shape reconstruction method based on a new optical blurring model is proposed. Firstly, the heat diffusion physics equation is analyzed and the optical diffraction model is modified to directly explain the basic principles of image blurring resulting from depth variation. Secondly, a blurring imaging model is proposed based on curve fitting of a 4th order polynomial curve. The heat diffusion equations combined with the blurring imaging are introduced, and their solution is transformed into a dynamic optimization problem. Finally, the experiments with a standard nanogrid, an atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever and a microlens have been conducted. The experiments prove that the proposed method can reconstruct 3D shapes at the micro/nanometer scale, and the minimal reconstruction error is 3 nm.
Highlights
Nowadays, micro/nanometer scale observation, as an enabling technology in nanotechnology, is important for researchers to understand the shapes, characteristics, and interactions between two objects during micro/nano manipulation [1,2,3,4]
The normal tools used in micro/nanometer observation include transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning probe microscopy (SPM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and optical microscopy
Our method provides a mathematical model between optical intensity distribution and depth information, and our contribution can be described as follows: first, the heat diffusion physics equation is analyzed and an optical diffraction model is modified to explain the basic principles of the blurred imaging process resulting from depth variation
Summary
Micro/nanometer scale observation, as an enabling technology in nanotechnology, is important for researchers to understand the shapes, characteristics, and interactions between two objects during micro/nano manipulation [1,2,3,4]. The requirements of optical microscopes, including manipulation environment and equipment cost, are all lower than those of the previous microscopes [6] Benefitting from their real-time and non-destructive imaging ability, it is possible to use optical microscopes to achieve real-time vision feedback and to improve manipulation precision in micro/nano technology [7,8]. In order to reconstruct the 3D shape of an object at the micro/nanometer scale, a method that can relate intensity distribution of a source point and depth variation is needed in real applications. In response to these issues, a shape reconstruction method based on optical techniques at the micro/nanometer scale is proposed in this paper. A series of experiments are conducted and the results prove that our proposed method can reconstruct 3D shapes at the micro/nanometer scale
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