Super-oscillatory lens device

US9606415B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON · GB

Inventors

• Nikolay Ivanovich Zheludev · Southampton, GB
• Salatore Savo · Cambridge, US
• Tapashree Roy · Kanchinakote, IN
• Vassili Savinov · Southampton, GB
• Mark Richard Dennis · Bristol, GB
• Edward Thomas Foss Rogers · Southampton, GB
• Jari Juhani Lindberg · Helsinki, FI

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 18, 2013
• Grant date: Mar 28, 2017
• Expiry date: Jun 30, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02B27/58
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A super-oscillatory lens (10) having a pre-defined pattern to spatially modulate the light beam in amplitude and/or phase which has a blocking element (6) formed integrally with the lens, or as a separate component adjacent to the lens, which is opaque to the light beam to cause diffraction of the light beam around the blocking element and formation of a shadow region (20). The lens and blocking element focus the light beam to form an elongate needle-shaped focus (15) in the shadow region (20). In any application in which it is necessary to scan a small spot over a surface, compared with a conventional objective lens focus the elongate shape of the focus relaxes the requirement on a feedback loop to maintain a constant separation between a scan head and a surface being scanned. The elongate shape is also ideal shape for materials processing applications.