Electron Beam Generator Sub-Wavelength Resolution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional optical microscopes are limited in magnification to about 10^6 to 10^9 and cannot examine features with a narrower line width than the wavelength of their source light, restricting high-resolution imaging.
Innovation Solution
An electron beam generator is developed using a combination of first and second laser beams with opposite phases, which overlap to create an interference beam with a smaller spot size than the wavelength of the individual laser beams, allowing for the generation of an electron beam with a narrower line width, and an image apparatus that includes this generator to achieve high-resolution imaging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a conventional optical microscope is used to magnify and examine a surface, then the surface image can be magnified to about 10^6 to 10^9, but the line width of the examined features cannot be narrower than the wavelength of the source light
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of the imaging system by switching from optical microscopy to electron beam technology. Electrons have a de Broglie wavelength much smaller than visible light, enabling resolution beyond the optical diffraction limit. The electron beam generator uses laser-induced field emission to produce electrons with controllable wavelength, achieving sub-nanometer resolution that overcomes the optical microscope's wavelength constraint.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the optical system (using photons) with an electron beam system (using matter waves). This substitution fundamentally changes the imaging mechanism from electromagnetic wave interaction to electron-matter interaction, allowing resolution limited only by electron wavelength rather than optical wavelength, thus resolving the contradiction between magnification and line width resolution.
2Manufacturing precision
If the line width of features to be examined is made narrower than the wavelength of source light, then higher resolution imaging is achieved, but conventional optical microscopes fail to examine such features
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the wavelength parameter by using electron beams instead of optical light. The de Broglie wavelength of electrons can be controlled and is inherently much smaller than optical wavelengths, enabling the examination of features with line widths narrower than the optical diffraction limit while maintaining high imaging capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes the optical detection system with an electron beam-based detection system. This replacement enables the system to resolve and image features with line widths below the optical wavelength threshold, as electron beams interact with matter at a much finer scale, thereby achieving both high resolution imaging and the ability to examine sub-wavelength features.
3Length of moving object
If a single laser beam is focused to a small spot, then the spot size is limited by the wavelength of the laser beam, but higher resolution requires a spot size smaller than the wavelength
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter from optical wavelength to electron wavelength. By generating electrons through laser-induced field emission and accelerating them, the system achieves a beam width determined by electron de Broglie wavelength rather than optical wavelength, enabling spot sizes and resolution beyond the optical diffraction limit.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the optical focusing system with an electron beam generation and focusing system. The electron beam's wave properties allow for much smaller effective spot sizes at the target, as the electron wavelength is orders of magnitude smaller than optical wavelengths, thus achieving resolution that cannot be obtained with conventional optical focusing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The electron beam generator produces an electron beam with a smaller line width than the laser beam wavelength, enabling high-resolution imaging capabilities beyond the limitations of conventional optical microscopes.
Implementation Method 1
a second laser apparatus configured to provide a second laser beam overlapping the first laser beam between the first optical system and the first laser apparatus. The second laser apparatus may output the second laser beam which has a phase opposite to a phase of the first laser beam, and may decrease a first spot size of an interference beam generated by a destructive interference with the first laser beam to be smaller than a wavelength of the first laser beam at the focal point
Implementation Method 2
a first optical system having a focal point on the substrate and configured to concentrate the first laser beam on the substrate
Data Source
AI summary
Provided may include an electron beam generator, an image apparatus including the same, and an optical apparatus. The optical apparatus includes a first and second laser apparatuses providing a first and second laser beams on a substrate, and a first optical system provided between the first and second laser apparatuses and the substrate to focus the first and second laser beams. The first and second laser beams overlap with each other generating an interference beam, thereby decreasing a spot size of the interference beam to be smaller than a wavelength of each of the first and second laser beams at a focal point.