title: A study on the realization of high resolution solid immersion lens-based near-field imaging optics by use of an annular aperture.
abstract: We report on the realization of solid immersion lens (SIL)-based near-field (NF) optics with an annular aperture, which is targeted to achieve high optical resolution. A numerical aperture (NA) = 1.84 hemisphere SIL-optics with an annular aperture achieves higher optical resolution than the conventional NA = 2.0 SIL-optics. The designed aperture is fabricated by photo-lithography and dry-etching technique. Experimental verification of the designed optics was performed through beam spot profile measurement under NF imaging conditions. A 15% smaller full-width-at-half-maximum spot diameter is obtained by the aperture. We verified that this method gives an improvement of the resolution in the optical imaging systems requiring higher resolution.
authors: Center for Information Storage Device, Yonsei University, 262 Seongsanno, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, Korea.
authors: Hyungbae
authors: H
authors: Moon
authors: Yong-Joong
authors: YJ
authors: Yoon
authors: Wan-Chin
authors: WC
authors: Kim
authors: No-Cheol
authors: NC
authors: Park
authors: Kyoung-Su
authors: KS
authors: Park
authors: Young-Pil
authors: YP
authors: Park
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007909:Lenses; D055095:Optics and Photonics