Claims
- 1. A method for direct writing on a surface of a substrate with neutral molecules comprising:
delivering a collimated beam of neutral molecules having a first direction of travel; delivering a laser light energy field having a second direction of travel; and intersecting the laser light energy field with the collimated beam of neutral molecules at a grazing angle of incidence between the first direction of travel and the second direction of travel to control the formation of features comprising the neutral molecules on the surface of the substrate.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the neutral molecule is selected from the group consisting of: metal atoms, metal clusters, semiconductor atoms, semiconductor clusters, dielectric atoms, and dielectric molecules.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the laser energy field has a divergence in the second direction of travel, and the angle of incidence between the first direction of travel and the second direction of travel is at least about twice the divergence of the laser energy field.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the laser light energy field has a polarization vector and upon intersection with the laser light energy field the spatial extent of the collimated beam of neutral molecules is reduced in the direction of the polarization vector of the laser light energy field.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the laser light energy field comprises using a circular laser focus.
- 6. A method of reducing the chromatic aberration in the method of claim 1, wherein delivering the collimated beam of neutral molecules further comprises reducing the rotational temperature of the neutral molecules by introducing the neutral molecules as a seed gas contained in carrier gas through a nozzle via a supersonic expansion in a reduced pressure environment.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the laser light energy field further comprises suppressing higher order modes of the laser light energy field.
- 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the beam of neutral molecules is delivered as a pulsed beam of neutral molecules, the laser light source is delivered as a pulsed laser light field, and the pulsing of the molecular beam and the laser light field are synchronized.
- 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the beam of neutral molecules is delivered as a substantially continuous beam of neutral molecules, the laser light energy field is delivered as a substantially continuous laser light field.
- 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the laser light energy field is an intense laser beam.
- 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the beam of neutral molecules and the laser light energy field intersect in a reduced pressure environment having a pressure of less than 2×10−10 Torr.
- 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the beam of neutral molecules has a flux of about 1017-1019, a rotational temperature of the molecules of less than about 1 K, and a divergence of approximately 10 to 100 microradians.
- 13. A method of producing nanostructures with controlled electrical and optical properties comprising:
providing a plurality of neutral molecules having anisotropic polarizabilities; moving the plurality of neutral molecules in a direction of travel; and applying a dipole force to the molecules at a grazing angle of incidence relative to the direction of travel to manipulate the molecules according to influence the molecules further travel according to the molecules' anisotropic polarizabilities.
- 14. An apparatus for direct writing on a surface of a substrate with neutral molecules, the apparatus comprising:
a vacuum chamber; a molecular beam source configured to deliver a collimated beam of neutral molecules into the vacuum chamber; a laser light source configurable to intersect a laser light energy field with the collimated beam of neutral molecules at a grazing angle of incidence in the vacuum chamber; wherein the intense laser light can focus the collimated beam of neutral molecules onto the surface of the substrate such that molecules can form features on the surface of the substrate.
- 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the molecular beam source produces a pulsed beam of neutral molecules, and the laser light source produces a pulsed laser light field and the pulsing of the molecular beam and the laser light field are synchronized to substantially intersect the two beams.
- 16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the molecular beam source produces a continuous beam of neutral molecules, and the laser light source produces a continuous wave laser light field.
- 17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the laser light source further comprises a capillary, configurable to pass the laser light energy field through the capillary before the laser light energy field intersects the beam of neutral molecules.
- 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the radius of the capillary is selected to suppress higher order modes of the laser light energy field.
- 19. An apparatus for direct writing on a surface of a substrate with neutral molecules, the apparatus comprising:
a vacuum chamber; a molecular beam source configured to deliver a substantially continuous collimated beam of neutral molecules into the vacuum chamber; a laser light resonance cavity configurable to intersect a laser light energy field with the collimated beam of neutral molecules at a grazing angle of incidence in the vacuum chamber; wherein the intense laser light can focus the collimated beam of neutral molecules onto the surface of the substrate such that molecules can form features on the surface of the substrate.
- 20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the laser light resonance cavity comprises at least one thin Yb:YAG gain medium with a large contact area.
- 21. The apparatus of claim 19 further comprising a focusing element in the laser resonance cavity.
- 22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the focusing element has a focal length of about 10 cm and generates an approximately 30 micrometer spot size at the intracavity focus.
- 23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the vacuum chamber further comprises Brewster-angled windows that oriented to assure vertically polarized radiation can be used to couple the intracavity radiation into and out of the vacuum chamber.
- 24. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising a nozzle for introducing the neutral molecules as a seed gas contained in carrier gas via a supersonic expansion in a reduced pressure environment.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Applications No. 60/380,754 filed on May 15, 2002, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/438,133 filed on Jan. 6, 2003.
FEDERAL RESEARCH STATEMENT
[0002] This invention was made with government support under Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER14880 awarded by the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. government has certain rights in the invention.
Provisional Applications (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60380793 |
May 2002 |
US |
|
60438133 |
Jan 2003 |
US |
|
60380754 |
May 2002 |
US |