Minimizing and/or increasing the beam width of a beam of light are important in a number of technology areas. For example, a minimized, or “spot size” of a focused beam of light is important for writing data to, or reading data from, an optical disk.
A cross-sectional view of a conventional lens device 10 is depicted in
In order to obtain a small spot size, a beam is typically passed through the lens elements 12, which have a relatively high numerical aperture (“NA”). The NA of a convex lens can be increased by increasing the diameter of the lens and shortening the focal length. However, incorporating such lenses in optical-based devices may be cost prohibitive because of the difficulty in fabricating very small lenses with large curvatures and because of the precise polishing needed to make the lenses aberration free. In addition, conventional convex and concave lenses may not be compatible with planar integrated circuits.
Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limited in the following figure(s), in which like numerals indicate like elements, in which:
For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the principles of the embodiments are described by referring mainly to examples thereof. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. It will be apparent however, to one of ordinary skill in the art, that the embodiments may be practiced without limitation to these specific details. In other instances, well known methods and structures are not described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the description of the embodiments.
Disclosed herein are embodiments directed to an optical device having a substantially planar substrate and a lens array disposed on the substantially planar substrate. The lens array is formed of distinct sub-wavelength dielectric gratings (“SWGs”), in which the SWGs are selected to refract and/or reflect light. In one regard, each of the SWGs in the lens array may operate as an independent lens and/or mirror. The lens array has a thickness that is smaller than the wavelengths of colors of light, for instance, on the order of about 50-300 nanometers. In this regard, the lens array disclosed herein is significantly smaller than the lens elements employed in conventional optical devices, and thus requires substantially less material than conventional optical devices. As such, through implementation of the embodiments disclosed herein, optical devices that are significantly smaller than conventional optical devices may be fabricated for use in various applications. For instance, the optical devices disclosed herein may be employed as mirrors or other types of optical devices.
The SWGs of the lens array are composed of a relatively higher refractive index material than the material used to form the substrate on which the SWGs are disposed. As discussed herein, a refractive index of about 1.3 or greater may be considered as being a high refractive index. In addition, the SWGs generally operate to control wavefront shapes in beams of light that are redirected by the SWGs in the lens array. Generally speaking, the period and duty cycle of the lines forming the SWGs are designed for each of the SWGs in the array to control the wavefront shapes as desired. In one regard, a uniform magnitude of refraction across the optical device may be achieved, but at each SWG, the phase of refraction coefficient will be varied. In other words, if a plane wave is sent through a particular SWG, the refractive wave will have a uniform magnitude, but the phase of the wave will be varied according to the design of that particular SWG. By selectively designing and arranging the SWGs according to the wavefront shapes of the SWGs, a combined wavefront from the SWGs having desired characteristics may be produced. In one regard, the optical device of the present invention may have a substantially planar structure, but may still operate as a refractive lens similar to conventional parabolic lenses or spherical lenses.
In one example, the optical devices disclosed herein may be employed in parallel optical interconnect applications, in which, multiple lasers are arranged in a linear and periodic fashion, such as, for instance, at a 250 micron pitch. In this example, the individual SWGs of the optical devices may be constructed for placement downstream of the lasers at a similar arrangement to the lasers to individually refract and/or reflect the light beams emitted by the individual lasers. The SWGs of the optical devices may also be constructed for placement upstream of a light receptor and may also be configured to focus, collimate, or disperse light prior to receipt by the light receptor.
In another example, the SWGs may be arranged on the lens array to function as alignment marks. The SWGs of this example may be employed to align the lens array to a laser or photodetector array by a vision system. In this example, some or all of the SWGs forming the lens array may be simultaneously fabricated with SWGs configured to redirect light emitted therethrough.
In the following description, the term “light” refers to electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the visible and non-visible portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, including infrared and ultra-violet portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
With reference first to
As depicted in
According to an embodiment, various ones of the SWGs 122 are configured to produce different wavefront shapes in a beam of light reflected and/or refracted by the SWGs 122 as compared with other ones of the SWGs 122. Thus, for instance, multiple ones of the SWGs 122 may be employed to cause light beams to become focused at a particular point, to be dispersed from a particular point, or for the light beams to be collimated. The SWGs 122 may also be configured and positioned to enable the optical device 100 to behave like a relatively complex optical device, such as, a Fresnel lens, without the relatively complex configurations required of conventional optical devices configured to perform such functions. Through selection and placement of the SWGs 122 having particular reflectance and/or refractive properties, the reflectance and/or reflective properties of the optical device 100 may substantially be controlled. Thus, according to this embodiment, the SWGs 122 may be individually configured to have desired characteristics to collectively produce desired reflective and/or refractive characteristics of the optical device 100 as a whole or to produce desired reflective and/or refractive characteristics at each of the individual SWGs 122.
The particular reflectance and/or refractive properties of each of the SWGs 122 are determined by the grating pattern selected for the SWGs 122. An example of a grating pattern for a SWG 122 is depicted in
The grating sub-patterns 204-206 form sub-wavelength gratings configured to reflect incident light polarized in one direction, for instance, the x direction, provided that the periods p1, p2, and p3 are smaller than the wavelength of the incident light. For example, the lines widths may range from approximately 10 nm to approximately 300 nm and the periods may range from approximately 20 nm to approximately 1 μm depending on the wavelength of the incident light. The light reflected from a region acquires a phase φ determined by the line thickness t, and the duty cycle η determined by:
where w is the line width and the p is the period of the lines associated with the region.
The SWG 122 may be configured to reflect and/or refract the x-polarized component or the y-polarized component of the incident light by adjusting the period, line width and line thickness of the lines. For example, a particular period, line width and line thickness may be suitable for reflecting the x-polarized component but not for reflecting the y-polarized component; and a different period, line width and line thickness may be suitable for reflecting the y-polarized component but not for reflecting the x-polarized component.
Each of the grating sub-patterns 202-206 also reflects and/or refracts incident light polarized in one direction, for instance, the x-direction, differently due to the different duty cycles and periods associated with each of the sub-patterns. With reference now to
Turning now to
As shown in
The SWGs 122 are configured to apply a particular phase change to reflected/refracted light while maintaining a very high reflectivity/refractivity. In particular, a SWG 122 configured with a one-dimensional grating pattern may apply a phase change to reflected/refracted light polarized perpendicular to the lines, as described above. An example of a phase change contour map produced by a particular grating pattern on a SWG is depicted in the copending PCT Application No. PCT/US2009/051026.
According to an embodiment, the SWGs 122 are configured and positioned on the substrate 110 to produce a desired phase change in a beam of light reflected from and/or refracted by the sub-wavelength gratings of the lens array 120. An example of phase contour maps 502 produced by the SWGs 122 in the lens array 120 is depicted in
Also shown in
Each of the contour maps 502 represents the magnitude of the phase change acquired by light reflected from and/or refracted by the SWGs 122. In the example shown in
The phase change in turn shapes the wavefront of light reflected from and/or refracted by each SWG 122 in the lens array 120. For example, as described above with reference to
Turning now to
At step 702, a target phase change across the lens array 120 is calculated by a computing device. The target phase change corresponds to a desired wavefront shape in beams of light redirected by the SWGs 122 of the lens array 122. Accordingly, the target phase change may be calculated based upon an intended implementation of the lens array 120. Thus, for instance, if the intended implementation of the lens array 120 is to cause light beams to converge to a focal point as depicted, for instance, in
According to an example, the computing device implements a rigorous wave analysis to calculate the target phase change across the lens array 120 at step 702. In addition, the computing device may determine a target phase change across each of the SWGs 122 that results in the target combined phase change across the lens array 120. Examples of various manners in which the computing device may determine the target phase changes across each of the SWGs 122 are described in the copending PCT Application No. PCT/US2009/051026.
At step 704, the computing device determines configurations of the SWGs 122 in the lens array 120 corresponding to the calculated target phase change. More particularly, for instance, the computing device may determine line widths, line period spacing, and line thicknesses corresponding to the target phase change determined for each of the SWGs 122 based upon the locations of the SWGs 122 in the lens array 120. According to a particular example, the computing device may implement a finite element analysis operation to determine the configurations of each of the SWGs 122. Examples of various manners in which the computing device may determine the configurations of each of the SWGs 122 are described in the copending PCT Application No. PCT/US2009/051026.
At step 706, the computing device generates a set of coordinates corresponding to the determined configurations of the SWGs 122. The set of coordinates may be generated to define the placements and configurations of each of the lines forming each of the SWGs 122 on the substrate 110.
At step 708, the set of coordinates for the SWGs 122 is inputted into a micro-chip design tool. In addition, at step 710, the optical device having the determined lens array 120 configuration is fabricated using the micro-chip design tool. According to an example, the micro-chip design tool is configured to pattern the lines of the SWGs 122 directly on a first layer of material placed on surface of the substrate 110. According to another example, the micro-chip design tool is configured to define a grating pattern of the lines in an imprint mold, which may be used to imprint the lines into a first layer positioned on the surface of the substrate 110. In this example, the imprint mold may be implemented to stamp the pattern of the lines into the first layer. Although particular examples of manners in which the lens array 120 may be fabricated have been described, it should be understood that any reasonably suitable fabrication technique may be employed. Examples of other suitable manners include imprint lithography, optical lithography, roll-to-roll imprinting, chemical vapor deposition, sputtering, etching, etc.
The methods employed to generate the SWG 122 grating pattern data of the lens array 120 with reference to
The computer readable medium 810 may be any suitable medium that participates in providing instructions to the processor 802 for execution. For example, the computer readable medium 810 can be non-volatile media, such as an optical or a magnetic disk; volatile media, such as memory; and transmission media, such as coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics. Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic, light, or radio frequency waves. The computer readable medium 810 can also store other software applications, including word processors, browsers, email, Instant Messaging, media players, and telephony software.
The computer-readable medium 810 may also store an operating system 814, such as Mac OS, MS Windows, Unix, or Linux; network applications 816; and a grating application 818. The operating system 814 may be multi-user, multiprocessing, multitasking, multithreading, real-time and the like. The operating system 814 may also perform basic tasks such as recognizing input from input devices, such as a keyboard or a keypad; sending output to the display 804 and the design tool 806; keeping track of files and directories on medium 810; controlling peripheral devices, such as disk drives, printers, image capture device; and managing traffic on the one or more buses 812. The network applications 816 includes various components for establishing and maintaining network connections, such as software for implementing communication protocols including TCP/IP, HTTP, Ethernet, USB, and FireWire.
The lens array application 818 provides various software components for generating grating pattern data, as described above. In certain embodiments, some or all of the processes performed by the application 818 may be integrated into the operating system 814. In certain embodiments, the processes can be at least partially implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in any combination thereof.
What has been described and illustrated herein is an embodiment along with some of its variations. The terms, descriptions and figures used herein are set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant as limitations. Those skilled in the art will recognize that many variations are possible within the spirit and scope of the subject matter, which is intended to be defined by the following claims—and their equivalents—in which all terms are meant in their broadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated.
The present application has the same Assignee and shares some common subject matter with PCT Application No. PCT/US2009/051026, entitled “NON-PERIODIC GRATING REFLECTORS WITH FOCUSING POWER AND METHODS FOR FABRICATING THE SAME”, filed on Jul. 17, 2009, PCT Application Serial No. PCT/US2009/058006, entitled “OPTICAL DEVICES BASED ON DIFFRACTION GRATINGS”, filed on Sep. 23, 2009, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 200903796-1), entitled “DYNAMICALLY VARYING AN OPTICAL CHARACTERISTIC OF A LIGHT BEAM”, filed on even date herewith, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/US10/22628 | 1/29/2010 | WO | 00 | 1/25/2012 |