Modulation and Control Technology for Generating Movable Super-Diffraction Optical Needle by Oblique Incidence

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Abstract
The movable super-diffraction optical needle (MSON) is a tightly focused beam like a “needle”, which can realize vector scanning on the focusing plane. Not only does it have a long focal depth, but its resolution also exceeds the diffraction limit. The modulation and control technology required for generating MSON by oblique incidence is explored in this manuscript for the purpose of processing high-aspect-ratio, sub-wavelength structures. As the optical needle generated by traditional methods is static and sensitive to variation of the angle information of the incident beam, here we introduce a confocal scanning system by using a two-dimensional galvanometer system, a scan lens, and a tube lens to control the oblique incidence angle. The effects of the oblique incidence angle on the resolution, depth of focus, uniformity, and side lobes of the MSON were analyzed. Further, the voltage-controlled liquid crystal located between the scan lens and the 2D galvanometer system can be used to compensate for the additional phase difference caused by oblique incidence. The aspect ratio is defined as the ratio of depth of focus to resolution. By modulating and controlling the light field, the MSON with high aspect ratio (7.36), sub-diffractive beam size (0.42λ), and long depth of focus (3.09λ) has been obtained with homogeneous intensity, and suppressed side lobes. High speed, high axial positioning tolerance, and high-resolution laser processing can also be achieved, which removes the restrictions presented by traditional laser processing technology, for which high resolution and long depth of focus cannot be achieved simultaneously.
Funding Information
  • the National R&D Program of China (2017YFC0804900)
  • The Instrument Development of Chinese Academy of Sciences (YJKYYQ20180008, YJKYYQ20180006)
  • Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2020JDJQ0007)
  • CAS “Light of West China” Program, Microelectronic Equipment Sichuan Province Youth Science and Technology Innovation Team (J17S006)
  • Microelectronic Equipment Sichuan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Research Team (No. 2016TD0021)

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