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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Subwavelength imaging via dark state

Hebil Li, Vladimir A. Sautenkov, Michael M. Kash, George R. Welch, Yuri V. Rostovtsev, Marlan O. Scully

Published May 4, 2008• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We theoretically study possibilities of creating spatial patterns having subwavelength length by using so-called dark states. These dark states are formed via interaction with bichromatic optical fields. Performing experiments in Rb vapor, we experimentally demonstrated spatial patterns that are smaller than the length determined by the diffraction limit of optical system used in the experiment. This approach has applications to interference lithography and can be used in coherent Raman spectroscopy to reach subwavelength spatial resolution.

DOI
10.1109/qels.2008.4553130

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We theoretically study possibilities of creating spatial patterns having subwavelength length by using so-called dark states. These dark states are formed via interaction with bichromatic optical fields. Performing experiments in Rb vapor, we experimentally demonstrated spatial patterns that are smaller than the length determined by the diffraction limit of optical system used in the experiment. This approach has applications to interference lithography and can be used in coherent Raman spectroscopy to reach subwavelength spatial resolution.
We study the possibility of creating spatial patterns having subwavelength size by using the so-called dark states formed by the interaction between atoms and optical fields. These optical fields have a specified spatial distribution. Our experiments in Rb vapor display spatial patterns that are smaller than the length determined by the diffraction limit of the optical system used in the experiment. This approach may have applications to interference lithography and might be used in coherent Raman spectroscopy to create patterns with subwavelength spatial resolution.
The resolutions of the optical lithography is limited by the well-known Rayleigh limit. Although the atom lithography can generate features smaller than this limit, the spacing of the pattern is still limited by the optical wavelength. Here, we proposed two atom lithography methods, both of which used the coherent Rabi oscillation to break the diffraction limit. One is in the microwave regime where the Rydberg atom is used and micrometer resolution can be achieved. The other is in the optical regime where sub-10 nanometer resolution is possible.
We demonstrate a systematic approach to subwavelength resolution lithographic image formation on films covering areas larger than a wavelength squared. For example, it is possible to make a lithographic pattern with a feature size resolution of $\ensuremath{\lambda}/[2(N+1)]$ by using a particular 2M-photon, multimode entangled state, where N< M,N<~M,N< M, and banks of birefringent plates. By preparing such a statistically mixed state, one can form any pixel pattern on a ${2}^{M\ensuremath{-}N}(N+1)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{2}^{M\ensuremath{-}N}(N+1)$ pixel grid occupying a square with side ${L=2}^{M\ensuremath{-}N\ensuremath{-}1}\ensuremath{\lambda}.$ Hence, there is a trade off between the exposed area, the minimum lithographic feature size resolution, and the number of photons used for the exposure. We also show that the proposed method will work even under nonideal conditions, albeit with somewhat poorer performance.
A novel approach for the generation of subwavelength structures in interferometric optical lithography is described. Our scheme relies on the preparation of the system in a position dependent trapping state via phase shifted standing wave patterns. Since this process only comprises resonant atom-field interactions, a multiphoton absorption medium is not required. The contrast of the induced pattern does only depend on the ratios of the applied field strengths such that our method in principle works at very low laser intensities.
We report an experiment in which an atomic excitation is localized to a spatial width that is a factor of 8 smaller than the wavelength of the incident light.The experiment utilizes the sensitivity of the dark state of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to the intensity of the coupling laser beam.A standing-wave coupling laser with a sinusoidally varying intensity yields tightly confined Raman excitations during the EIT process.The excitations, located near the nodes of the intensity profile, have a width of 100 nm.The experiment is performed using ultracold 87 Rb atoms trapped in an optical dipole trap, and atomic localization is achieved with EIT pulses that are approximately 100 ns long.To probe subwavelength atom localization, we have developed a technique that can measure the width of the atomic excitations with nanometer spatial resolution.