A method of forming at least one lithography feature, the method including: providing at least one lithography recess on a substrate, the or each lithography recess having at least one side-wall and a base, with the at least one side-wall having a width between portions thereof; providing a self-assemblable block copolymer having first and second blocks in the or each lithography recess; causing the self-assemblable block copolymer to self-assemble into an ordered layer within the or each lithography recess, the ordered layer including at least a first domain of first blocks and a second domain of second blocks; causing the self-assemblable block copolymer to cross-link in a directional manner; and selectively removing the first domain to form lithography features of the second domain within the or each lithography recess.

A two-photon-polymerization laser direct writing system based on an acousto-optic deflector is provided, which includes an ultrafast laser device, a beam expander, a scanning field center angular dispersion compensator, a two-dimensional acousto-optic deflector, a scanning field edge angular dispersion compensator, an astigmatism compensator and a focusing objective lens, the ultrafast laser device is configured to emit an ultrafast laser; the scanning field center angular dispersion compensator is configured to conduct precompensation on an angular dispersion at a center of a scanning field; the two-dimensional acousto-optic deflector is configured to deflect the ultrafast laser on the angular dispersion at the center of the scanning field; the scanning field edge angular dispersion compensator is configured to compensate for an angular dispersion at an edge of the scanning field; the astigmatism compensator is configured to compensate for astigmatism; the focusing objective lens is configured to conduct tight-focusing on the ultrafast laser.

The present invention provides a process for producing an optical waveguide (20) more particularly for integrated photonic systems. This process comprises provision of polymerizable material; local polymerization of the polymerizable material to produce a multiplicity of polymerized structural elements (14); removal of the unpolymerized regions of the polymerizable material; and heating of the polymerized material more particularly above the glass transition temperature thereof in order to fuse the multiplicity of polymerized structural elements (14) together to form the optical waveguide (20).

The present invention fits into the 3D microprinting sector and relates to a process for producing degradable 3D polymeric nano- or microstructures having sub-micrometre resolution. The process of the invention uses a photoresist formulation comprising a mixture of: (i) cyclic ketene acetal monomers; (ii) vinyl and/or (meth)acrylic monomers; and (iii) at least one photoinitiator. The process of the invention is based on two-photon polymerisation photoinitiated by focusing a laser beam within said photoresist formulation, with the obtainment of polymeric nano- or microstructures degradable under mild conditions and having sub-micrometre resolution.

A process of forming a three-dimensional micro component includes the step of forming a three-dimensional (3D) geometry contour within a photoresist material using two-photon absorption polymerization. The three-dimensional geometry contour forms a cross-linked polymeric contour defining an outer surface portion of a micro component upon baking of the three-dimensional geometry portion formed in the photoresist. Another step involves applying a UV (ultraviolet) polymerization process so as to cross-link polymeric material of the photoresist adjacent the three-dimensional geometry contour.

A method and composition for enabling indirect photoexcitation whereby a large energy gap between energy levels in a second material is circumvented by a series of lower energy photoexcitations in a first material.

An objective having a plurality of optical elements arranged to image a pattern from an object field to an image field at an image-side numerical aperture NA>0.8 with electromagnetic radiation from a wavelength band around a wavelength includes a number N of dioptric optical elements, each dioptric optical element i made from a transparent material having a normalized optical dispersion
n.sub.i=n.sub.i(.sub.0)n.sub.i(.sub.0+1 pm)
for a wavelength variation of 1 pm from a wavelength .sub.0. The objective satisfies the relation $\frac{.Math.\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{.Math.}}{n}_i\left(s_i-d_i\right).Math.}{{}_0{\mathrm{NA}}^4}A$
for any ray of an axial ray bundle originating from a field point on an optical axis in the object field, where s.sub.i is a geometrical path length of a ray in an ith dioptric optical element having axial thickness d.sub.i and the sum extends on all dioptric optical elements of the objective. Where A=0.2 or below, spherochromatism is sufficiently corrected.

A fine feature formation method and apparatus provide photon induced deposition, etch and thermal or photon based treatment in an area of less than the diameter or cross section of a STED depleted laser beam. At least two STED depleted beams are directed to a reaction location on a substrate where a beam overlap region having an area smaller than the excitation portion of the beams is formed. A reactant or reactants introduced to the reaction region is excited by the combined energy of the excitation portions of the two beams, but not excited outside of the overlap region of the two excitation portions of the beams. A reactant is caused to occur only in the overlap region. The overlap region may be less that 20 nm wide, and less than 1 nm in width, to enable the formation of substrate features, or the change in the substrate, in a small area.

Methods and systems for assembling electron spin and charge to possess one or more properties of a topological plasmonic spin texture array for performing lithography that is not limited by an optical system's diffraction limit are disclosed. According to one embodiment, the method includes defining a polarization of an optical field of light and a corresponding coupling-structure geometry. The method includes providing a coupling structure having the defined coupling-structure geometry in a metallic material, the coupling structure defining a region of the metallic material. The method includes directing light having the defined polarization to a center of the region, forming a lattice of plasmonic merons having a finer contrast resolution than a diffraction or reflection based resolution determined by Abbe limit based on the defined polarization of the optical field.

A multiphoton absorption lithography processing system configured to process a to-be-processed object is provided. The multiphoton absorption lithography processing system includes a femtosecond laser source, a spatial light modulator, a lens array, and a stage. The femtosecond laser source is configured to emit a femtosecond laser beam. The spatial light modulator is configured to modulate the femtosecond laser beam into a modulated beam. The lens array is disposed on a path of the modulated beam and configured to divide the modulated beam into a plurality of sub-beams and make the sub-beams be focused on a plurality of position points at the to-be-processed object, so as to form multiphoton absorption reaction at the position points. The stage is configured to carry the to-be-processed object. The stage and the lens array are adapted to move with respect to each other in three dimensions.