Using light to inscribe tiny nanoscale plastic parts
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 07:20
in Physics & Chemistry
One of the biggest obstacles in microscopy and in micro-fabrication is the so-called diffraction limit. This basic law says that the resolution (or sharpness) of an image cannot be better than approximately half the wavelength of the light waves being used to make it. Similarly, when light is used to inscribe patterns on microchips -- a standard process known as lithography -- these features can't get much more narrow than about a quarter the wavelength of the light. Now scientists have pushed this limit, achieving pattern features with a size as small as one-twentieth of the wavelength.