TY - JOUR

T1 - UV-LED projection photolithography for high-resolution functional photonic components

AU - Zheng, Lei

AU - Zywietz, Urs

AU - Birr, Tobias

AU - Duderstadt, Martin

AU - Overmeyer, Ludger

AU - Roth, Bernhard

AU - Reinhardt, Carsten

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy within the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD (EXC 2122, Project ID 390833453) and the DFG (German Research Foundation, Project ID RE3012/4-1 and RE3012/2-1).

PY - 2021/8/17

Y1 - 2021/8/17

N2 - The advancement of micro- and nanostructuring techniques in optics is driven by the demand for continuous miniaturization and the high geometrical accuracy of photonic devices and integrated systems. Here, UV-LED projection photolithography is demonstrated as a simple and low-cost approach for rapid generation of two-dimensional optical micro- and nanostructures with high resolution and accuracy using standard optics only. The developed system enables the projection of structure patterns onto a substrate with 1000-fold demagnification. Photonic devices, e.g., waveguides and microring resonators, on rigid or flexible substrates with varied geometrical complexity and overall structure dimensions from the nanometer to centimeter scale were successfully prepared. In particular, high-resolution gratings with feature sizes down to 150 nm and periods as small as 400 nm were realized for the first time by this approach. Waveguides made of doped laser active materials were fabricated, and their spontaneous emission was detected. The demonstrated superior performance of the developed approach may find wide applications in photonics, plasmonics, and optical materials science, among others.

AB - The advancement of micro- and nanostructuring techniques in optics is driven by the demand for continuous miniaturization and the high geometrical accuracy of photonic devices and integrated systems. Here, UV-LED projection photolithography is demonstrated as a simple and low-cost approach for rapid generation of two-dimensional optical micro- and nanostructures with high resolution and accuracy using standard optics only. The developed system enables the projection of structure patterns onto a substrate with 1000-fold demagnification. Photonic devices, e.g., waveguides and microring resonators, on rigid or flexible substrates with varied geometrical complexity and overall structure dimensions from the nanometer to centimeter scale were successfully prepared. In particular, high-resolution gratings with feature sizes down to 150 nm and periods as small as 400 nm were realized for the first time by this approach. Waveguides made of doped laser active materials were fabricated, and their spontaneous emission was detected. The demonstrated superior performance of the developed approach may find wide applications in photonics, plasmonics, and optical materials science, among others.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113157954&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41378-021-00286-7

DO - 10.1038/s41378-021-00286-7

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85113157954

VL - 7

JO - Microsystems and Nanoengineering

JF - Microsystems and Nanoengineering

IS - 1

M1 - 64

ER -