PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | May 5, 2012
Proc. SPIE. 8430, Optical Micro- and Nanometrology IV
KEYWORDS: Microscopes, Refractive index, Silica, Polarization, Polarizers, Refraction, Solids, 3D metrology, Beam shaping, Illumination engineering
We report on the advanced optical characterizations of microfabricated solid immersion lenses with 2-μm diameter,
operating at λ= 642 nm. The main feature, the spot size reduction, has been investigated by applying a focused Gaussian
beam of NA = 0.9. Particular illuminating beams, e.g., Bessel-Gauss beams of the zeroth and the first order, a doughnutshape
beam and its decompositions, i.e. two-half-lobes beams, have also been used to influence the shape of the
immersed focal spot. Detailed optical characterizations have been conducted by measuring the amplitude and phase
distributions with a high-resolution interference microscope (HRIM) in volume around the focal spot. The immersion
effect of the SiO2 solid immersion lens leads to a spot-size reduction of approximately 1.5 which agrees well with theory.
Particularly shaped incident beams exhibit a comparable size reduction of the immersed spots. Such structured focal
spots are of significant interest in optical trapping, lithography, and optical data storage systems.
