The techniques applying laser beams or optical systems are limited by the diffraction limit of the optical heads
used. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the use of the photonic jet allows an improvement in
the optical resolution to achieve smaller etching without reducing the wavelength of the source. The potential of
the photonic jet using a nanosecond pulsed near-infrared laser for micro-fabrication is also demonstrated. These
lasers are the most common type of laser used in industrial processes because of their price and the fact that
well-packaged sources are available. Their typical spatial resolution in laser etching is limited by the spot size of
their focus point at around 25-70 μm. This is the reason why a photonic jet, a high spatial concentration onto a
half-wavelength spot of a beam that emerges in the vicinity of a dielectric microsphere, is of great interest. In our
experiments, micro-scale glass (ns = 1.5) and BaTiO3 spheres (ns = 1.9) have been used to achieve photonic jets. The etching process has been tested on two substrates: silicon wafers, which have a significant absorption at
1064 nm, and glass plates, which have a lower absorption at this wavelength. The smallest marking achieved on
silicon has an average diameter of 1.3 μm and despite the low absorption, micrometric etchings have also been
achieved on glass using larger microspheres.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.