Fabrication of SIL array of glass by surface-tension mold technique

A preparation of microlens array of the super-spherical glasses by a combination of the photolithography and the Surface-tension Mold (StM) techniques is shown. A super-spherical lens has been gathering much attention because of its function as a Solid Immersion Lens (SIL) with the super-resolution, which circumvents the optical diffraction limit. StM technique enables the preparation of a micrometer-sized SIL (μ-SIL) with the desirable shape, and the obtained SILs realize the optical function. In order to develop the optical micro-devices composed of SILs, μ-SIL array module, the micro-fabrication technique of photolithography is combined with StM technique. Na2O-CaO-SiO2 glass film is attached to glassy-carbon, and etched into glass tiles after the formation of masks by the photolithography. They are heated up to 800oC to self-organize into the super-spherical form of the glass droplets. The obtained lens array is found to be composed of the μ-SILs with the uniform radius and thickness.

[1]  M. Yoshita,et al.  Large terrace formation and modulated electronic states in (110) GaAs quantum wells , 2001 .

[2]  G. S. Kino,et al.  High-numerical-aperture lens system for optical storage , 1993 .

[3]  Henry I. Smith,et al.  HIGH EFFICIENCY POLARIZATION REVERSAL OF MAGNETOELASTIC WAVES IN YIG BY OPTICAL‐CONTACT BONDING OF YAG DISKS , 1966 .

[4]  Hidefumi Akiyama,et al.  Application of Solid Immersion Lens to High-Resolution Photoluminescence Imaging of Patterned GaAs Quantum Wells , 1997 .

[5]  Bruce D. Terris,et al.  Near‐field optical data storage using a solid immersion lens , 1994 .

[6]  Ciprian Iliescu,et al.  Stress control in masking layers for deep wet micromachining of Pyrex glass , 2005 .

[7]  Yuji Kuroda,et al.  Near-Field Phase-Change Optical Recording of 1.36 Numerical Aperture , 2000 .

[8]  Johan Roeraade,et al.  Method for fabrication of microfluidic systems in glass , 1998 .

[9]  Hidefumi Akiyama,et al.  Improved High Collection Efficiency in Fluorescence Microscopy with a Weierstrass-Sphere Solid Immersion Lens , 2002 .

[10]  Ciprian Iliescu,et al.  Characterization of masking layers for deep wet etching of glass in an improved HF/HCl solution , 2005 .

[11]  Richard A. Mathies,et al.  Microfabrication Technology for the Production of Capillary Array Electrophoresis Chips , 1998 .

[12]  Huihe Qiu,et al.  Integrating micromachined fast response temperature sensor array in a glass microchannel , 2005 .

[13]  D. Katzer,et al.  IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL EXCITONS IN A NARROW GAAS/ALGAAS QUANTUM WELL , 1999 .

[14]  Tohru Suemoto,et al.  High collection efficiency in fluorescence microscopy with a solid immersion lens , 1999 .

[15]  Kenneth E. Goodson,et al.  Microfabricated silicon solid immersion lens , 2001 .

[16]  Minoru Takeda,et al.  Near-Field Recording with a 266 nm Laser for Disc Mastering Process , 2003 .

[17]  G. Kino,et al.  Solid immersion microscope , 1990 .

[18]  G. Kino,et al.  Near-field infrared imaging with a microfabricated solid immersion lens , 2000 .

[19]  M. Esashi,et al.  Deep reactive ion etching of Pyrex glass using SF6 plasma , 2001 .