Wavelength dependence of light-induced domain nucleation in MgO-doped congruent LiNbO3 crystal

Within the wavelength range from 351 to 799 nm, the different reductions of nucleation field induced by the focused continuous laser irradiation are achieved in the 5 mol % MgO-doped congruent LiNbO3 crystals. The reduction proportion increases exponentially with decreasing irradiation wavelength and decreases exponentially with increasing irradiation wavelength. At one given wavelength, the reduction proportion increases exponentially with increasing irradiation intensity. An assumption is proposed that the reduction of nucleation field is directly related to the defect structure of crystal lattice generated by the complex coaction of incident irradiation field and external electric field. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Impact of polarized illumination on high NA imaging in ArF immersion lithography at 45 nm node

Immersion lithography has been considered as the mainstream technology to extend the feasibility of optical lithography to further technology nodes. Using proper polarized illumination in an immersion lithographic tool is a powerful means to enhance the image quality and process capability for high numerical aperture (NA) imaging. In this paper, the impact of polarized illumination on high NA imaging in ArF immersion lithography for 45 nm dense lines and semi-dense lines is studied by PROLITH simulation. The normalized image log slope (NILS) and exposure defocus (ED) window are simulated under various polarized illumination modes, and the impact of polarized illumination on image quality and process latitude is analyzed. (C) 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Prism coupling of ultrashort light pulses into waveguides

We discuss coupling of ultrashort light pulses into waveguides by use of a prism waveguide coupler configuration. Theoretical analysis indicates that an extra loss induced by the short coherence times of ultrashort pulses, which has a strong effect on the reflected light and the optimum coupling condition, appears in the waveguide. Numerical simulations show that the reflectance strongly depends on the coherence times of ultrashort pulses. A method for realizing optimum coupling by compensating for the extra loss is proposed as well in this paper. A preliminary experiment of employing ultrashort pulses with different coherence times was carried out, and good agreement between theory and experiment was obtained. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.