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Nanofabrication of solid- state Fresnel lenses for electron optics

Nature volume 394, pages 49–52 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Lenses for precision electron optics are mainly magnetic, requiring large cylinders of soft iron to focus an electron beam. Such lenses can only be convergent1, and so suffer from spherical aberration. Electrostatic lenses are sometimes used, but tend to be even more cumbersome. The advent of high-brightness electron guns for scanning transmission electron microscopy has made it possible to use the resulting tightly focused electron beams to drill holes a few nanometres in size and of controlled depth in some inorganic thin films2,3,4,5: such patterned structures can then be used to manipulate the phase of an electron wave in a manner analogous to light optics6,7. Here we use this approach to fabricate compact solid-state ‘pixelated’ Fresnel lenses for electron optics. These lenses, which can be convergent or divergent, are not expected to compete with conventional magnetic lenses in most applications (such as microscopy), but may find a niche in electron-beam lithography.

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Figure 1: Phase-shift function, φF (r), of the ideal Fresnel lens (line) and the radial positions of the holes and their expected phase shifts for the actual lens (dots) with a nominal focal length of f = 1 mm.
Figure 2: Two Fresnel lenses with different focal lengths.
Figure 3: Electron micrographs of a through focal series of the two lenses in Fig. 2 observed in the CTEM normal imaging mode.
Figure 4: Schematic diagram of a cross-section of a hole made by the STEM probe.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. J. R. Granleese for assistance and for the beam writing software and G. E. Rosman for his assistance and discussion on the simulation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, CB3 0HE, Cambridge, UK

    Y. Ito, A. L. Bleloch & L. M. Brown

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  1. Y. Ito
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  2. A. L. Bleloch
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  3. L. M. Brown
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Correspondence to A. L. Bleloch.

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Ito, Y., Bleloch, A. & Brown, L. Nanofabrication of solid- state Fresnel lenses for electron optics. Nature 394, 49–52 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/27863

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