Nano-optical gratings for integrated laser interferometer arrays

In this contribution we show that binary nano-optical gratings in the resonance domain are ideal elements to build up such integrated interferometers. By means of symmetry considerations the grating's requirements for an ideal operation of the interferometer are determined. Utilizing the resonance behaviour of such nano-structures an interferometer operation close to the theoretical limits is reachable. A modal analysis reveals the basic effects causing the special responses of the gratings. The gratings are fabricated by electron-beam lithography and accompanied technology

New grating concepts in the NIR and SWIR spectral band for high resolution earth-observation spectrometers

We report about our latest achievements to realize the diffraction gratings during the development activities for a future Earth observation high resolution spectrometer studied by ESA. The gratings are manufactured by electron beam lithography on fused silica substrates. The optical performance is considerably increased by applying a dedicated high refractive index coating to the grating structure using atomic layer deposition (ALD). Thus, we were able to achieve diffraction efficiencies larger than 75% averaged over both linear polarizations states, i.e. TE and TM. At the same time, the polarization sensitivity is well below 10% in both cases. Finally, the diffraction gratings for the SWIR-1 spectral channel were bonded on a massive prism substrate in order to realize a GRISM element. This process was achieved by direct fused silica bonding performed under atmospheric pressure within special mechanical equipment designed and constructed particularly for this purpose

Multilevel blazed gratings in resonance domain: An alternative to the classical fabrication approach

In this paper we present a novel technological approach for the fabrication of multilevel gratings in the resonance domain. A coded chromium mask is used to avoid alignment errors in electron beam lithography, which typically occur within the standard multistep binary micro-optics technology. The lateral features of all phase levels of the grating are encoded in a single chromium mask. The final profile of the structure is obtained by selective etching process for each level. This new technological method is applied for the fabrication of two different three-level gratings in resonance domain. The corresponding optical response as well as structural characterizations are presented and discussed. In particular, a first order diffraction efficiency of 90% is demonstrated for a grating period twice the wavelength at normal incidence

Waveguide Grating Radial Polarizer for the Photolithography of Circularly Symmetrical Optical Elements

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Miniature integrated micro-spectrometer array for snap shot multispectral sensing

An array of micro spectrometers for parallel spectral sensing is designed, set up and tested. It utilizes a planar prism grating combination to obtain an almost linear optical system of 6 mm length only. Arranging such micro spectrometers in an array configuration yields 2’000 spectrometers when utilizing a common 4/3” CCD image sensor well adapted to e.g. microscopic image dimensions. The application in microscopic imaging in the 450-900 nm spectral range is demonstrated as proof of concept, which can be adapted to massively parallel sensing in the frame of integrated sensor concepts

Black and white fused silica: modified sol-gel process combined with moth-eye structuring for highly absorbing and diffuse reflecting SiO2 glass

Diffuse reflecting (white) and highly absorbing (black) fused silica based materials are presented, which combine volume modified substrates and surfaces equipped with anti-reflective moth-eye-structures. For diffuse reflection, micrometer sized cavities are created in bulk fused silica during a sol-gel process. In contrast, carbon black particles are added to get the highly absorbing material. The moth-eye-structures are prepared by block copolymer micelle nanolithography (BCML), followed by a reactive-ion-etching (RIE) step. The moth-eye-structures drastically reduce the specular reflectance on both diffuse reflecting and highly absorbing samples across a wide spectral range from 250 nm to 2500 nm and for varying incidence angles. The adjustment of the height of the moth-eye-structures allows us to select the spectral position of the specular reflectance minimum, which measures less than 0.1%. Diffuse Lambertian-like scattering and absorbance appear nearly uniform across the selected spectral range, showing a slight decrease with increasing wavelength

Ultra-high aspect ratio replaceable AFM tips using deformation-suppressed focused ion beam milling:Paper

Fabrication of ultra-high aspect ratio exchangeable and customizable tips for atomic force microscopy (AFM) using lateral focused ion beam (FIB) milling is presented. While on-axis FIB milling does allow high aspect ratio (HAR) AFM tips to be defined, lateral milling gives far better flexibility in terms of defining the shape and size of the tip. Due to beam-induced deformation, it has so far not been possible to define HAR structures using lateral FIB milling. In this work we obtain aspect ratios of up to 45, with tip diameters down to 9 nm, by a deformation-suppressing writing strategy. Several FIB milling strategies for obtaining sharper tips are discussed. Finally, assembly of the HAR tips on a custom-designed probe as well as the first AFM scanning is shown