LOW-COST HIGH RESOLUTION HOLOGRAPHIC OPTICAL ELEMENTS

HOLOGRAPHIC AND BINARY OPTICAL ELEMENTS (HOBO) ARE REQUIRED FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF OPTICAL COMPUTING SYSTEMS, AND ARE EMERGING AS AN IMPORTANT ALTERNATIVE TO CONVENTIONAL OPTICAL ELEMENTS FOR MANY COMMERCIAL AND MILITARY OPTICAL SYSTEMS. AT PRESENT, THE DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF HOBO IS EXPENSIVE AND CUMBERSOME, RELYING ON MAINFRAME COMPUTERS AND MULTIMILLION DOLLAR ELECTRON-BEAM LITHOGRAPHY FACILITIES DESIGNED FOR IC PRODUCTION. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FABRICATION OF HIGH QUALITY HOBO ELEMENTS WITH 0.1 UM RESOLUTION USING SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPES AT A SMALL FRACTION OF THIS COST. WE WILL ALSO SHOW THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO INTERFACE THIS SYSTEM TO THE INDUSTRY-STANDARD COMPUTER GRAPHICS LANGUAGE POSTSCRIPT, OPENING AN ENORMOUS BASE OF EXISTING SCIENTIFIC/CAD AND MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE TO DIRECT RECORDING WITH THE SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE. THE GOAL IS A COMMERCIAL SYSTEM INCORPORATING THE "WORLD'S HIGHEST RESOLUTION PRINTER" CAPABLE OF RECORDING HOBO AND OTHER FINE-SCALE SCIENTIFIC PATTERNS AT 254,000 PIXELS PER INCH.