Laser Pattern generator for the fabrication of diffractive optical elements

A single-point laserwriting system for the fabrication of multi-phase level surface-relief diffractive optics will be designed and analyzed. The instrument will be designed to generate diffractive structures in photoresist. The minimum feature size obtained from such an instrument directly influences the maximum diffraction angle, wavefront performance, and diffraction efficiency of the resulting optical element. The overall performance of the optical element is a strong function of the instrument accuracy. In the Phase I research and development effort, a user interface and the associated software routines for developing generalized phase structures will be developed. Optical elements of interest include diffractive lenses and interconnect distributions for optical processing applications. Compared to electron-beam or vlsi-lithographic methods, a laser offers the potential for small feature sizes at reasonable cost. Direct writing on the substrate will allow the optic to be manufactured at one station. The goal of the SBIR Phase II development effort is to construct and evaluate an integrated workstation for the fabrication of a wide range of diffractive components.