We report on a concept of a benchtop microscope for routine applications. This concept system transfers key features of a high-end laser scanning microscope to a dedicated confocal fluorescence imaging system with appropriate footprint and reduced systems complexity. The optical beam path is specifically designed for the purposes of confocal imaging leading to a short beam path length that fulfills the footprint requirements. The system allows an optical 3D scanning through the sample of up to 100 depths of focus without moving the sample. The scanning unit consists of a 2D MEMS scanning mirror spanning and a deformable mirror forming 3 virtual scanning axes. For a compact integration of the detection beam path, a confocal detector with an actuated MEMS pinhole was developed to adjust the optical sectioning. The selected light sources are directly modulated lasers operating at wavelengths that are frequently used for fluorescence imaging in life science applications. To provide a simple interface to almost any user’s hardware such as laptops or tablets, the systems architecture for real time control and data acquisition is based on a FPGA.
In the last years it has been shown that the gray tone lithography (with HEBS-glass masks) is a suitable technology for fabricating arbitrary continuous surface profiles. However, the resolution of this technology is limited and is in the range of some micrometers dependent on the electron energy used for darkening the HEBS glass mask. To overcome this drawback, we suggest to apply two subsequent lithographic steps on the photoresist layer without a second coating. Non-standard gray tone lithography will be used in a first step for fabricating a pre-form and the second lithographic step which can provide the resolution demanded will correct for the residual deviations.
This is possible with an alternative method of gray tone lithography which makes use of the absorption and bleaching of the photoresist. Exposure with a sufficiently short time leaves a bottom part of the resist layer unexposed and develop-ment stops at its face. Thus, the remaining resist profile can be exposed in a second lithographic step without a new re-sist coating.
With this method it will be possible to fabricate sub-wavelength structures, e.g. for antireflection, on top of arbitrary continuous surface profiles. Moreover, this method can be used for the fabrication of deep profiles by repeated applica-tion of the first lithographic step.
In the paper we will discuss the problems of accuracy, resolution and profile depth of this method and present results of optical elements fabricated by this technology.
We report on a new approach in analog photolithography for the manufacturing of optical elements with a continuous profile. It is based on a phase-only mask used in a mask aligner.The advantage of this new approach is that it is contact free, i.e.there is a gap between the mask and the substrate during the exposure. That allows
a non-destructive mask lithography.
For testing of aspheric surfaces, null-CGH were needed in different sizes and numerical apertures. The design of the CGH pattern from the wave front to be produced leads to physical problems and last not least to writing times that can strongly influence the price of the CGH. Due to this problems, we investigated the validity of the thin element approximation (TEA) that is the most usual and most convenient method for CGH pattern design. By using rigorous results for the change of the wave front to be constructed, it is possible to use TEA in an extended range. The investigation of the pattern decomposition has shown its influence on the data volume and writing time as well on the CGH quality. Using this knowledge, CGHs having up to 130mm diameter and numerical apertures of 0.55 have been fabricated.
In many laser diode applications, it is necessary to make a beam shaping or beam transformation. One example is the collimation, but often we wish to achieve additional properties like special shapes of the beam. Such beams can be designed with high efficiency and signal quality by means of refractive beam shaping elements. Frequently, we have to vary the beam propagation parameters significantly to fulfil the beam shaping task. If we want to use refractive beam shaping elements, the design results in an element with a large profile depth. A well suited fabrication method for refractive beam shaping elements is the gray tone lithography, however, it is limited by the achievable depth of profile. This means that design and fabrication methods should be taken into account to achieve the advantages of refractive elements. On the one hand, we have to improve fabrication technique for enlarging the producible profile depth. On the other hand, we have to use all of the design freedoms to reduce the profile depth. We will present results of the design and fabrication of a refractive beam shaping element with a profile depth up to 60micrometers to transform a laser diode beam into a line intensity distribution.
The transformation of a given incoming wave front into a certain intensity distribution is an interesting task for micro optics with applications, for instance, in material processing and display illumination. For the design of a beam shaping element, the amplitude and the phase of the illumination wave have to be known at least in one plane. If the light source for the beam shaping problem is a high power laser or a multi mode fiber, the illumination wave is not the fundamental mode but the superposition of many modes with fluctuating fractions of intensity. This means that the amplitude and the phase of the beam can not be expressed analytically. However, the average amplitude can be calculated using the measured intensity distribution while the phase is unknown. Therefore we applied a method where the phase of the real illumination wave is approximated by a representative phase distribution which can be assumed from the propagation of the multi mode beam. With this approximation, we calculated refractive beam shaping elements using well known numerical methods based on wave optics. The beam shaping elements were fabricated using gray tone lithography which is a well suited technology for the fabrication of continuous surface profiles. We will present results of the application of such an element to shape the beam from a multi mode fiber.
An interesting scope in micro optics is the transformation of an arbitrary incoming wave front into another arbitrary intensity distribution. This task includes simple focusing as well as the sophisticated control of the propagation properties of the illumination wave. For the reasons of wave length independence and high efficiency, it is necessary to use refractive elements. The design of these beam shaping elements is made by well-known numerical methods based on wave optics. One technology for the fabrication of refractive micro optical elements is gray tone lithography which is capable of the realization of continuous surface profiles with a total height of up to 65 μm. With the use of gray tone lithography on a preform, even higher profiles are capable of being produced. We fabricated high quality lens arrays and different beam shaping elements. The generation of top-hat intensity distributions with different (non separable) shapes or a line of constant intensity are examples of application. We used a single mode fiber as well as a laser diode and a multi mode fiber as light sources. The illumination waves are Gaussian or Gaussian-like beams.
Recording holographic optical elements usually requires a good illumination uniformity as well as a spherical or plane phase. To fulfill the uniformity demand, an expansion of the Gaussian beam is necessary. This leads to a loss of intensity connected with an essential extension of the recording time. Alternatively, the recording efficiency can be increased by using a beam transformation the beam from a Gaussian into a top hat intensity distribution. We designed, realized and tested a setup for a more efficient hologram recording which can be used for full color application. The heart of the setup is a refractive beam shaping element fabricated by a gray tone lithography and proportional transfer into quartz glass. The beam shaping element shows a conversion efficiency of $GTR99,5% (like a refractive lens) in the whole visible spectral range and an intensity uniformity <5%RMS.
The fabrication of refractive optical elements faces the demand of an absolute accuracy of the profile which depends on the wavelength of light. Analogue lithography is a suitable technology for the fabrication of such smooth profiles up to a profile depth of about 10 micrometers . The realization of larger profile depths requires new fabrication techniques. Our approach to solve this problem is to use the similarity of refractive optical surface profiles and certain minimal surfaces. The objective of this paper is to describe design and fabrication of optical profiles which can be realized by combining minimum surfaces and analogue lithography. As a result, with refractive beam shaping elements a wavelength independent conversion efficiency of more than 99% was realized.
Several algorithms can be used in order to calculate a phase function that shapes a light beam into a certain intensity distribution. In cases of smooth phase functions, e.g. for the conversion of a Gaussian beam into a flat top distribution, the optical element can be realized by a smooth surface profile without 2 pi jumps. Even though the disadvantages of diffractive elements are well known, often the limitations of the fabrication technologies permit the realization of only diffractive elements. For the beam shaping elements in micro optics, methods exist which allow the fabrication of smooth surface profiles. Such refractive elements have the advantages of a wavelength independent behavior and a conversion efficiency of nearly 100% as known from refractive lenses. In some cases, the design of refractive result in thick surface profiles and the fabrication technique do not fit to this. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to show some possibilities to make the design meet the fabrication capabilities. We used lithographic and etch techniques as well as replication technologies for the fabrication. The basis of the presented technology is gray tone technique, the generation of a proper pre-form, and its correction in order to achieve maximum coincidence with the desired surface profile. Several refractive beam shaping elements have been realized.
Analogue contact lithography is a suitable technology for the fabrication of continuous surface profiles. In this field HEBS-glass gray scale masks have a great potential, for instance for producing microoptical elements. This paper summarizes detailed investigations on the electron beam exposure of HEBS-glass masks. At first we give an idea of the effects we obtained by exposing HEBS-glass masks with different kinds of e-beam writers (Gaussian beam and variable shape e-beam writer). We found thermal effects and a bottleneck effect which have different consequences for the gray level of the exposed mask. To understand its physical causes the bottleneck effect was investigated in detail. Based on this knowledge we introduce two different strategies to overcome the problems caused by the different concepts of the e-beam writer. Selected examples of fabricated profiles demonstrate the facilities of HEBS-glass using these strategies.
The fabrication of surface profile may become an interesting technology in the field of micro optics and micromachining. Recently, surface profiles are known and widely used in optics, especially in diffractive optics. In the last few years the demand on deep and arbitrarily shape profiles increased drastically. Laser beam writing and e-beam writing are technologies suitable for the fabrication of such profiles, but only for a limited range of profile depth. Photolithography is also able to realize surface profiles, much deeper profiles can be realized by combining of different technologies. In this paper we report about a strategy for arbitrary deep profile generation as well as results we achieved by using single and combined technologies of special gray scale masks (based on HEBS glass), e-beam lithography and photolithography.
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