Abstract

Machining of small holes with arbitrary contours can be performed by focusing a laser beam with a modulated zone plate (MZP). MZP’s use the structure of the Fresnel zone plate as the carrier of a modulation function, which contains complete information about the contour to be machined. Spherically corrected MZP’s produce aberration-free images within a field angle of 10⁻³ rad. It is shown that the background noise due to higher diffraction orders is unimportant under typical machining conditions. A manufacturing procedure for high resolution MZP’s with up to 2500 zones etched in chromium or quartz layers deposited on glass substrates is discussed. As in-line holograms have properties similar to MZP’s, a simple method of recording wavelength-shift corrected in-line holograms is described. Experiments performed with a stable single-mode Nd³⁺-YAG laser demonstrate that the MZP can be an important tool for laser machining purposes.

© 1974 Optical Society of America

Computer-Drawn Modulated Zone Plates

A. Engel and G. Herziger
Appl. Opt. 12(3) 471-479 (1973)

Zone Plate Interferometer

Raymond N. Smartt
Appl. Opt. 13(5) 1093-1099 (1974)

Quantum Noise in Fresnel Zone Plate Imaging

H. H. Barrett and G. D. DeMeester
Appl. Opt. 13(5) 1100-1109 (1974)

Birefringent Fresnel zone plates in silica fabricated by femtosecond laser machining

Erica Bricchi, John D. Mills, Peter G. Kazansky, Bruce G. Klappauf, and Jeremy J. Baumberg
Opt. Lett. 27(24) 2200-2202 (2002)

Holographic laser scanners using generalized zone plates

Yuzo Ono and Nobuo Nishida
Appl. Opt. 21(24) 4542-4548 (1982)