Claims
- 1. A method for forming differing aspect ratio features in a photostructurable material comprising a bulk material, a nucleating agent and a sensitizer, the method comprising the steps of,exposing an XYZ point within the photostructurable material at a respective intensity level at a focal point of a laser beam, repeating the exposing step for a plurality of XYZ points within the photostructurable material at a respective plurality of intensity levels, the respective plurality of intensity levels providing a variable intensity exposure of the photostructurable material, the photostructurable material having a plurality of etch rates depending on the respective plurality of intensity levels, baking the photostructurable material for transforming the nucleating agent into crystalline structures with differing etch rates that depend on the respective plurality of intensity levels, and etching the photostructurable material for etching the crystalline clusters for forming differing aspect ratio features.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein,the bulk material is an alkali-doped glass the nucleating agent is silver, and the sensitizer is cerium.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein,the laser beam is a pulsed UV laser beam.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein,the laser beam is a λ=355 nm 10 kHz pulsed laser beam.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein,the etching step is a maskless etching step.
- 6. The method of claim 1 wherein,the differing etch rates are linearly dependent on the respective plurality of intensity levels.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein,a first XYZ point of the XYZ points at a first Z depth is exposed at a first focal depth at a first intensity level of the plurality of intensity levels, a second XYZ point of the XYZ points at a second Z depth is exposed at a second focal depth at a second intensity level of the plurality of intensity levels, the first Z depth is less than the second Z depth, and the first intensity level is higher than the second intensity level.
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
The present application is related to applicant's copending application entitled Ultraviolet Method of Embedding Structures in Photocerams, Ser. No. 09/821,918 and filed Mar. 30, 2001, by a common inventor and by the same assignee.
STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST
The invention was made with Government support under contract No. F04701-00-C-0009 by the Department of the Air Force. The Government has certain rights in the invention.
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