Increase In Numerical Aperture Research Articles

Germanium metalens for longwave infrared applications

Metalenses represent a paradigm shift in optics, offering unprecedented control over light manipulation. This study focuses on the design optimization of a polarization-insensitive germanium (Ge) metalens operating in the longwave infrared (LWIR) regime. Employing rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, a metalens with 1 mm focal length was designed using nanopillars with 3.5 µm height and radius ranging from 0.55 µm to 1.2 µm. Then, the impact of lattice size and numerical aperture (NA) on lens performance was investigated. The results indicate that smaller lattices allow finer phase control and enhanced transmittance stability across the phase profile if significant coupling effects are not verified. As the NA increases, the focal spot size decreases, albeit with diminishing returns towards the diffraction limit. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first work that shows high focal efficiency (∼80 %) across multiple NA's for a LWIR metalens with a diameter under 1100 µm. The proposed metalens is compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology and supports low-cost manufacturing.

Effects of different cladding materials on orbital angular momentum modes propagating in photonic crystal fibers.

With the development of orbital angular momentum (OAM) photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) for more efficient communication, fiber claddings are important to the performance. In this paper, the influence of S i O 2 and four new optical materials, which are amethyst, SSK2, SF11, and LaSF09, as cladding materials, on the OAM mode characteristics is studied based on a common PCF for OAM transmission. In addition, the effective index difference, dispersion, confinement loss, and other properties of OAM modes transmitted in the five materials are derived by the finite element method. After in-depth analysis, universal rules can be obtained as guidelines for optimization of PCF in the future for improving the efficiency of optical fiber communication. Through chart analysis, it can be concluded that when materials of high effective refractive indices are used as cladding materials for PCF, the dispersion, nonlinear coefficient, confinement loss, mode purity, and other properties are significantly improved. Lower dispersion and confinement loss are more conducive to long-distance communication transmission. The decrease in nonlinear coefficient represents a better effect in suppressing nonlinear effects, and the increase in numerical aperture and mode purity respectively improves the transmission efficiency and stability of OAM communication. These conclusions provide universal rules for high-quality communication in the future.

Meta-Surface Slide for High-Contrast Dark-Field Imaging

A label-free microscopy technology, dark-field microscopy, is widely used for providing high-contrast imaging for weakly scattering materials and unstained samples. However, traditional dark-field microscopes often require additional components and larger condensers as the numerical aperture increases. A solution to this is the use of a meta-surface slide. This slide utilizes a multilayer meta-surface and quantum dots to convert incident white light into a red glow cone emitted at a larger angle. This enables the slide to be used directly with conventional biological microscopy to achieve dark-field imaging. This paper focuses on the design and preparation of the meta-surface and demonstrates that using the meta-surface in a standard transmission optical microscope results in a dark-field image with higher contrast than a bright-field image, especially when observing samples with micron-sized structures.

Accelerating superluminal laser focus generated by a long-focal-depth mirror with high numerical aperture.

The long-focal-depth mirror is a novel reflective element proposed in recent years. Due to the advantages of negligible dependence on wavelength and high damage threshold, it is suitable to focus ultra-short laser pulses with broadband spectra and high intensity with a focal depth of centimeter scale. To the best of our knowledge, the focusing properties of this mirror has been only studied under low numerical aperture (NA). In this paper, we extend it to the case of high NA and it is proved that an accelerating superluminal laser focus can be always generated by this extension, in which the degree of acceleration increases with the increase of NA. And the velocity of laser focus increases approximately linearly from c to 1.6c for NA = 0.707. Due to its properties of tight focusing, the Richards-Wolf integrals have been used to study the intensity distribution of each polarization component for different kinds of incident light. And these are linearly polarized light, radially polarized light, azimuthally polarized light, linearly polarized light with spiral phase, and linearly polarized light with ultrashort pulses. From comparisons of numerical results, the intensity distributions are obviously different for different kind of incident light, and accelerating superluminal laser focus with special structure (such as the hollow conical beam) can be produced under appropriate condition. We believe this study can expand the fields of application for the long-focal-depth mirror.

Super-resolution reconstruction algorithm for optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy images based on sparsity and deconvolution.

The lateral resolution of the optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) system depends on the focusing diameter of the probe beam. By increasing the numerical aperture (NA) of optical focusing, the lateral resolution of OR-PAM can be improved. However, the increase in NA results in smaller working distances, and the entire imaging system becomes very sensitive to small optical imperfections. The existing deconvolution-based algorithms are limited by the image signal-to-noise ratio when improving the resolution of OR-PAM images. In this paper, a super-resolution reconstruction algorithm for OR-PAM images based on sparsity and deconvolution is proposed. The OR-PAM image is sparsely reconstructed according to the constructed loss function, which utilizes the sparsity of the image to combat the decrease in the resolution. The gradient accelerated Landweber iterative algorithm is used to deconvolve to obtain high-resolution OR-PAM images. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the resolution of mouse retinal images by approximately 1.7 times without increasing the NA of the imaging system. In addition, compared to the Richardson-Lucy algorithm, the proposed algorithm can further improve the image resolution and maintain better imaging quality, which provides a foundation for the development of OR-PAM in clinical research.

Compensated differential Zernike fitting method for wavefront aberration metrology based on grating lateral shearing.

Lateral shearing based on the grating is one of the classical configurations when measuring the wavefront aberration of optical systems such as the lithographic projection lens. Because the wavefront under test is spherical, but a detector surface is a plane, the coordinate of the wavefront surface will be distorted on the detector surface. As the numerical aperture (NA) of the optics under test increases, the shear ratios at different positions within the shearing region are significantly different due to the coordinate distortion. Therefore, the reconstructed wavefront from the traditional lateral-shearing reconstruction method designed for a fixed shearing ratio will contain a non-negligible error. In this work, we use the ray-tracing method to calculate the shearing ratio distribution in the shearing region and propose a compensated differential Zernike fitting method to solve the coordinate distortion and shearing ratio variation problem. The relative error of the uncompensated result will increase as the NA increases. This error is around 1% for a 0.1 NA, 10% for a 0.3 NA, and over 100% for an NA above 0.7. Compensation for the shearing ratio variation is necessary when the NA is larger than 0.3. The proposed method has been validated by simulations and experiments.

Optimal phase shift mask and multilayer stack with the evaluation of imaging performance and process latitude in extreme ultraviolet high numerical aperture

In high numerical aperture (NA) extreme ultraviolet lithography, which is used to implement a finer linewidth of 10 nm or lower, serious problems arise in patterning as the NA increases. To alleviate such problems, a thin absorber and a multilayer with good reflective efficiency and improved pattern quality are required. To develop an effective EUV photomask for the commercialization of high-NA systems, we determined the optimal ruthenium (Ru)/silicon (Si) multilayer structure using a phase-shift mask (PSM) absorber. A Ru/Si multilayer using PSM as an absorber has a smaller best-focus range and placement error compared to the molybdenum (Mo)/silicon (Si) multilayer. At the same time, it provides improved image contrast, enabling more stable patterning. Even when the number of layers of the Ru/Si multilayer was reduced, it was confirmed that the reflectance efficiency and image quality were maintained.

Laser-driven Marangoni flow and vortex formation in a liquid droplet

We present a systematic study of the laser-driven Marangoni flow and curvature induced vortex formation in a copper sulfate pentahydrate solution, visualized by dispersed carbon nanotube (CNT) bundles. The experiments are carried out using different objectives of numerical aperture (NA) in the range of 0.1–0.6 to investigate the effect of focusing on the flow dynamics. The flow velocities measured (for 0.1 NA) are in the range of 2 mm/s–5 mm/s depending on the size of CNTs. Both primary and secondary vortices are observed in our experiment. In the primary vortex, with a sixfold increase in NA, a tenfold increase in the angular velocity of CNTs is measured. We also discuss the important role played by the curvature of the droplet in the vortex formation. The numerical simulations carried out for flow velocity are in agreement with the experimental values.

Dynamic focusing of acoustic wave utilizing a randomly scattering lens and a single fixed transducer

In this study, we report a randomly scattering lens (RSL) coupled with a single fixed transducer to realize dynamic acoustic focusing. This acoustic lens is composed of randomly distributed acoustic scatterers, and a single ultrasound transducer is fixed on one side of the lens. Benefitting from the high-order multiple scattering in the RSL, the ultrasound emitted by the single fixed transducer can be dynamically focused onto any desired point by manipulating the transmitting waveform. Then, we successfully apply such a single channel system to decode a photoacoustic image from the received ultrasound signal. Further studies demonstrate that the focusing ability of the proposed system can be approximated by a classic acoustic lens. Its axial resolution is related to the speed of sound and the bandwidth of the signal; its lateral resolution depends not only on the ultrasound frequency but also on the numerical aperture of the RSL; furthermore, the image quality improves as the numerical aperture increases. In comparison with other acoustic focusing methods, dynamic focusing achieved by the proposed system needs neither special materials or delicate structures nor a large number of channels. Therefore, the proposed system could find broad applications ranging from medical ultrasound imaging to nondestructive detection.

Lens-free spectral light-field fusion microscopy for contrast- and resolution-enhanced imaging of biological specimens.

A lens-free spectral light-field fusion microscopy (LSLFM) system is presented for enabling contrast- and resolution-enhanced imaging of biological specimens. LSLFM consists of a pulsed multispectral lens-free microscope for capturing interferometric light-field encodings at various wavelengths, and Bayesian-based fusion to reconstruct a fused object light-field from the encodings. By fusing unique object detail information captured at different wavelengths, LSLFM can achieve improved resolution, contrast, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over a single-channel lens-free microscopy system. A five-channel LSLFM system was developed and quantitatively evaluated to validate the design. Experimental results demonstrated that the LSLFM system provided SNR improvements of 6-12dB, as well as a six-fold improvement in the dispersion index (DI), over that achieved using a single-channel, resolution-enhancing lens-free deconvolution microscopy system or its multi-wavelength counterpart. Furthermore, the LSLFM system achieved an increase in numerical aperture (NA) of ∼16% over a single-channel resolution-enhancing lens-free deconvolution microscopy system at the highest resolution wavelength used in the study. Samples of Staurastrum paradoxum, a waterborne algae, and human corneal epithelial cells were imaged using the system to illustrate its potential for enhanced imaging of biological specimens.

Wavefront engineering: selective aperture illumination for increased depth of focus and super-resolution for photolithography

Photolithography has been and is the driving force behind enhancement and miniaturization of computers and their peripherals. Advances in photolithographic processes have enabled modern integrated circuits to have millions of electrical devices on a single, small circuit chip. Diffraction optics plays a central role in the photolithographic process, as during etching, the incoming light passes through a moderate-aperture focusing lens and converges on every point on the chip. Thus, the structure of the electromagnetic field in the focal region is of considerable interest. While techniques such as implantation and deposition processes control the vertical architecture of the integrated circuit chip, the lateral dimensions are defined solely by diffraction optics. The conventional imaging approach has a severe restriction because depth of focus shortens with an increase in resolution. Even though using shorter wavelength light such as deep ultraviolet is helpful, it too is reaching a point where further increase in resolution is necessary while, at the same time, preserving or increasing the depth of focus. Shortening of depth of focus with increase resolution is nonetheless the most severe limitation of photolithography. Thus, reduction in wavelength and increase in numerical aperture are viable options, but this approach has tremendous difficulties. In this study, we present a novel approach to achieve both super-resolution and increased depth of focus through a technique called selective aperture illumination (SAI). In SAI, the incoming light is redistributed by means of an optical element, phase, and attenuation masks. It is shown that both the increased depth focus and super-resolution are achieved by selectively choosing appropriate phase and amplitude at the entrance pupil.

Polarization effect of cylindrical vector beam in high numerical aperture lens axicon systems

A method is presented for generation of cylindrical vector beam and also to obtain the polarization effect on focal depth in high numerical apertures (NA) lens axicon optical systems. The generalized cylindrical vector beam is just a linear combination of radial and azimuthal polarization. For radially polarized light in the focal plane, there are two electric field components one is the radial component and second is azimuthal component, whose magnitudes will increases with the increase of numerical aperture (NA). By contrast, for azimuthally polarized light in the focal plane, there is only one electrical field component in the azimuthal polarization, it is easy to understand the difference between the two polarization effects. The high NA lens axicon utilizes spherical aberration to duplicate the performance of an axicon and to create an extended focal line. In this paper, we demonstrate how this phenomenon can be harnessed to make a properly selected polarization component to achieve high focal depth in high NA lens axicon systems. The numerical evaluation of system generates some of the interesting focal spot, focal split and focal patterns. The largest focal depth is achieved, by properly changing the polarization rotation angle of the cylindrical vector beam (the ratio of radial and azimuthal polarization is set properly). We will denote a technique of polarization assisted high focal depth in high NA lens axicon systems.

Second harmonic generation signal in collagen fibers: role of polarization, numerical aperture, and wavelength

The spatial distribution of second harmonic generation (SHG) signal from collagen fibers for incident elliptical polarized light has been modeled. The beam was assumed to focus on a horizontal fiber through a microscope objective. For elliptical polarized states located along a vertical meridian of the Poincare sphere, the SHG intensity has been optimized in terms of the incident wavelength and the numerical aperture (NA) of the objective. Our results show that polarization modulates the SHG signal. Elliptical polarization can generate high signals (even greater than those corresponding to linear polarization) when combined with appropriate values of both incident wavelength and NA. On the other hand, the SHG intensity might also be identically zero for particular elliptical polarization states, a condition that depends exclusively on the ratio of hyperpolarizabilities of the collagen fibers. The highest forward-to-backward SHG signal distribution occurs along the propagating direction, depends on the incident wavelength, and reduces when NA increases. Furthermore, the direction of maximum SHG emission was found to be more sensitive to changes in the NA rather than variations in the incident wavelength. These findings could help to optimize the experimental conditions of multiphoton microscopes and to increase SHG signals from biological tissues containing collagen.

Effect of polarization on focal depth in high numerical apertures optical systems

The generalized cylindrical vector beam is just a linear combination of radial and azimuthal polarization. For radially polarized light in the focal plane, there are two electric field components, the radial component and z-component whose magnitude increase with the increase of numerical aperture. By contrast, for azimuthally polarized light in the focal plane, there is only one electrical field component in the azimuthal polarization, it is easy to understand the difference between the two polarization effects. In this paper, we demonstrate how this phenomenon can be harnessed to make a properly selected polarization component to achieve high focal depth in high numerical aperture systems. Numerical simulations show that the evolution of the focal shape is very considerable by changing polarization rotation angle of the generalized cylindrical vector beam. And some interesting focal spots and focal split may occur. And if the ratio of radial and azimuthal polarization is set properly by changing the polarization rotation angle, a largest focal depth is achieved. The tunable range of the focal depth is very considerable. The ratio of radial and azimuthal polarization is different in different NA optical system for obtaining the largest focal depth. We will denote a technique of polarization-assisted high focal depth in high numerical aperture systems.

22-nm-node technology active-layer patterning for planar transistor devices

As the semiconductor device size shrinks without a concomitant increase of numerical aperture (NA) and refractive index of the immersion fluid, printing 22-nm-technology devices presents challenges in resolution. Therefore, aggressive integration of a resolution enhancement technique (RET), design for manufacturability (DFM), and layer-specific lithographic process development are strongly required in 22-nm-technology lithography. We show patterning of an active layer of a 22-nm-node planar logic transistor device, and discuss achievements and challenges. Key issues identified include printing tight pitches, isolated trench, and 2-D features while maintaining a large lithographic process window across the chip while scaling down the cell size. Utilizing NA=1.2, printing of the static random access memory (SRAM) of a cell size of 0.1 µm2 and other critical features across the chip with a process window are demonstrated.

Solid immersion lens applications for nanophotonic devices

Solid immersion lens (SIL) microscopy combines the advantages of conventional microscopy with those of near-field techniques, and is being increasingly adopted across a diverse range of technologies and applications. A comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in this rapidly expanding subject is therefore increasingly relevant. Important benefits are enabled by SIL-focusing, including an improved lateral and axial spatial profiling resolution when a SIL is used in laser-scanning microscopy or excitation, and an improved collection efficiency when a SIL is used in a light-collection mode, for example in fluorescence micro-spectroscopy. These advantages arise from the increase in numerical aperture (NA) that is provided by a SIL. Other SIL-enhanced improvements, for example spherical-aberration-free sub-surface imaging, are a fundamental consequence of the aplanatic imaging condition that results from the spherical geometry of the SIL. Beginning with an introduction to the theory of SIL imaging, the unique properties of SILs are exposed to provide advantages in applications involving the interrogation of photonic and electronic nanostructures. Such applications range from the sub-surface examination of the complex three-dimensional microstructures fabricated in silicon integrated circuits, to quantum photoluminescence and transmission measurements in semiconductor quantum dot nanostructures.

Application of ellipsometry in immersion lithography

AbstractOptical lithography with an ArF excimer laser (193 nm) can produce sub 100nm patterns. Without the reduction of wavelength, further increase in resolution is expected by employing an immersion technique in which a liquid medium is filled between the objective lens and underlying photoresist. In this case, resolution can be enhanced through the increase of numerical aperture. However, in order for immersion lithography to be successful, many problems associated with the liquid environment need to be solved. One of the serious problems is the interaction between liquid and photoresist. Liquid may penetrate into the photoresist and cause leaching problem. This in turn modifies the physical and chemical properties of the photoresist. Thus, it is important to monitor the modification of the photoresist by immersion liquid. In this work, spectroscopic ellipsometry and imaging ellipsometry are used to investigate the absorption of liquid by photoresist as well as top coat which is used to prevent water penetration into underlying photoresist. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Novel spin-on hard mask with Si-containing bottom antireflective coating for nanolithography

ArF lithography has continued with the increase of numerical aperture (NA) and the decrease of resist thickness, which are causing several problems both in mass production and development stage. NA is going to exceed unity in immersion, which necessitates the use of dual bottom antireflective coating (BARC) with increased process complexity and cost. Resist thickness, on the other hand, is expected to further decrease below 100nm. Therefore, it is inevitable to use additional hard masks, which increases production cost due to chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Here the author discloses the novel spin-on hard (SOH) mask system with dual BARC property to overcome both problems aforementioned. This SOH mask composed of two layers of Si-containing BARC and carbon materials shows high etch selectivity between thin resist and several substrates. Composition and etch chemistries of two layers are intensively studied to give CVD-comparable step-by-step etch selectivity to transfer various patterns of thin resist including line/space and contact holes to the various substrates. In addition, optical properties of two layers are finely designed from comprehensive optical simulation to be applied to various generations of ArF lithography from dry to immersion process. In this study, the Si-BARC with high silicon content showed the fastest etching rate related with resist and showed also high etching resistance toward underlying spin-on carbon. The author obtained good etch profile of 60nm L/S patterns using Si-BARC with 36% silicon content as a SOH mask. This novel system is under extensive optimization to be applied to various generations of ArF lithography from mass production to the most pioneering semiconductor devices utilizing immersion lithography.

Immersion digital in-line holographic microscopy

Digital in-line holographic microscopy is a promising new tool for high resolution imaging. We demonstrate, by using latex beads, that a considerable increase in numerical aperture, and, therefore, resolution can be achieved if the space between a source and a CCD camera chip is filled with a high refractive index medium. The high refractive index medium implies a shorter effective wavelength so that submicrometer resolution can be obtained with laser light in the visible range.

Study of the Imaging Properties in High Numerical Aperture Projection Optics

Properties of the high numerical aperture (NA) imaging including the immersion lens (NA ≧ 1) have been studied by using the in-house simulator based on the vector diffraction theory. It has been shown that the resolution does not improve in proportion to the NA because the apodization effect which arises at the focal region reduces the resolution as the NA increases. Resolution reduction has been estimated from the analysis of the point images as 4% (3%) at NA 0.9 and 8% (6%) at NA 1.2 under unpolarized illumination with the 1.5 (1.7) of refractive index of the resist. From the investigation of the numerical accuracy, it has been shown that in high NA (>0.9) and large illumination sigma, the shadowing effect of the mask pattern affects the image properties. This effect can be treated by considering the diffraction of the oblique illumination and the normal incidence approximation used in most commercially available simulators is not sufficiently accurate.