Jonghan Jin

High-harmonic generation by resonant plasmon field enhancement

High-harmonic generation by focusing a femtosecond laser onto a gas is a well-known method of producing coherent extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light. This nonlinear conversion process requires high pulse intensities, greater than 1013 W cm-2, which are not directly attainable using only the output power of a femtosecond oscillator. Chirped-pulse amplification enables the pulse intensity to exceed this threshold by incorporating several regenerative and/or multi-pass amplifier cavities in tandem. Intracavity pulse amplification (designed not to reduce the pulse repetition rate) also requires a long cavity. Here we demonstrate a method of high-harmonic generation that requires no extra cavities. This is achieved by exploiting the local field enhancement induced by resonant plasmons within a metallic nanostructure consisting of bow-tie-shaped gold elements on a sapphire substrate. In our experiment, the output beam emitted from a modest femtosecond oscillator (100-kW peak power, 1.3-nJ pulse energy and 10-fs pulse duration) is directly focused onto the nanostructure with a pulse intensity of only 1011 W cm-2. The enhancement factor exceeds 20 dB, which is sufficient to produce EUV wavelengths down to 47 nm by injection with an argon gas jet. The method could form the basis for constructing laptop-sized EUV light sources for advanced lithography and high-resolution imaging applications.

Absolute length calibration of gauge blocks using optical comb of a femtosecond pulse laser

We report an exploitation of the optical comb of a femtosecond pulse laser as the wavelength ruler for the task of absolute length calibration of gauge blocks. To that end, the optical comb was stabilized to the Rb clock of frequency standard and an optical frequency synthesizer was constructed by tuning an external single-frequency laser to the optical comb. The absolute height of gauge blocks was measured by means of multiwavelength interferometry using multiple beams of different wavelengths consecutively provided by the optical frequency synthesizer. The wavelength uncertainty was measured 1.9×10-10 that leads to an overall calibration uncertainty of 15 nm (k=1) in determining the absolute length of gauge blocks.

Absolute length measurement with the frequency comb of a femtosecond laser

We report exploiting the frequency comb of a femtosecond laser as a means of realizing the time-based SI definition of the meter for length metrology. Specifically, an external-cavity diode laser is continuously tuned to a stabilized frequency comb, and its output frequency is modulated over an extensive range to measure the absolute value of a given length by means of multi-wavelength optical interferometry. This approach could find applications in establishing practical length standards with a small amount of uncertainty directly traceable to time standards.

Kim et al. reply

Replying to M. Sivis, M. Duwe, B. Abel & C. Ropers 485, 10.1038/nature10978 (2012)Sivis et al. showed spectral data of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission from gas-exposed bow-ties, claiming high predominance of atomic line emission (ALE) of neutral and ionized gas atoms in contradiction to our data of high harmonic generation (HHG). This is not the first time the signature of ALE has been identified in conventional HHG spectral data. The two distinct phenomena, ALE and HHG, are not mutually exclusive but coexistent when gaseous atoms are illuminated by strong-field laser pulses.

Uncertainty improvement of geometrical thickness and refractive index measurement of a silicon wafer using a femtosecond pulse laser

We have proposed a modified method to improve the measurement uncertainty of the geometrical thickness and refractive index of a silicon wafer. Because measurement resolution based on Fourier domain analysis depends on the spectral bandwidth of a light source directly, a femtosecond pulse laser having the broad spectral bandwidth of about 100 nm was adopted as a new light source. A phase detection algorithm in Fourier domain was also modified to minimize the effect related to environmental disturbance. Since the wide spectral bandwidth may cause a dispersion effect in the optical parts of the proposed interferometer, it was considered carefully through numerical simulations. In conclusion, the measurement uncertainty of geometrical thickness was estimated to be 48 nm for a double-polished silicon wafer having the geometrical thickness of 320.7 μm, which was an improvement of about 20 times that obtained by the previous method.

A wide-range optical frequency generator based on the frequency comb of a femtosecond laser

A precise way of optical frequency generation is demonstrated with direct use of the frequency comb of a mode-locked femtosecond laser. Only a single mode is extracted at a time on demand from the frequency comb through a composite filtering scheme and then amplified by means of optical injection locking with extremely low background noise. Generated output signals are found to preserve not only the narrow linewidths of the selected individual modes but also the absolute frequency positions of the original comb over a wide spectral range. These outstanding performances of optical frequency generation could find applications in high precision spectroscopy, frequency calibration, and length metrology.

Precision depth measurement of through silicon vias (TSVs) on 3D semiconductor packaging process

We have proposed and demonstrated a novel method to measure depths of through silicon vias (TSVs) at high speed. TSVs are fine and deep holes fabricated in silicon wafers for 3D semiconductors; they are used for electrical connections between vertically stacked wafers. Because the high-aspect ratio hole of the TSV makes it difficult for light to reach the bottom surface, conventional optical methods using visible lights cannot determine the depth value. By adopting an optical comb of a femtosecond pulse laser in the infra-red range as a light source, the depths of TSVs having aspect ratio of about 7 were measured. This measurement was done at high speed based on spectral resolved interferometry. The proposed method is expected to be an alternative method for depth inspection of TSVs.

An optical absolute position measurement method using a phase-encoded single track binary code

We present a new absolute position measurement method using a single track binary code where an absolute position code is encoded by changing the phase of one binary state representation. It can be decoded efficiently using structural property of the binary code, and its sub-division is possible by detecting the relative positions of the binary state representation used for the absolute position encoding. Therefore, the absolute position encoding does not interfere with the sub-division process and so any pseudo-random sequence can be used as the absolute position code. Because the proposed method does not require additional sensing part for the sub-division, it can be realized with a simple configuration and efficient data processing. To verify and evaluate the proposed method, an absolute position measurement system was setup using a binary code scale, a microscopic imaging system, and a CCD camera. In the comparison results with a laser interferometer, the measurement system shows the resolution of less than 50 nm and the nonlinearity error of less than ±60 nm after compensation.

Dimensional metrology using the optical comb of a mode-locked laser

In the field of dimensional metrology, significant technical challenges have been encountered with regard to large-scale object assembly, satellite positioning, control of the long-distance precision stage, and inspections of large steps or deep holes on semiconductor devices and multi-layered display panels. The key elements required are high speeds, a long dynamic measurable range, and good precision of measurements, and conventional methods can scarcely meet such requirements simultaneously. Promisingly, the advent of the optical comb has opened up numerous possibilities to break through practical limits by exploiting several of its unique features. These include inter-mode interference, a wide spectral bandwidth with a long coherence length and well-defined longitudinal modes. In this review, various dimensional metrological methods using the optical comb are introduced, describing their basic principles and applications in scientific as well as industrial areas.

Fizeau-type interferometric probe to measure geometrical thickness of silicon wafers.

We developed an optical interferometric probe for measuring the geometrical thickness and refractive index of silicon wafers based on a Fizeau-type spectral-domain interferometer, as realized by adopting the optical fiber components of a circulator and a sheet-type beam splitter. The proposed method enables us to achieve a much simpler optical composition and higher immunity to air fluctuations owing to the use of fiber components and a common-path configuration as compared to a bulk-type optical configuration. A femtosecond pulse laser having a spectral bandwidth of 80 nm at a center wavelength of 1.55 µm and an optical spectrum analyzer having a wavelength uncertainty of 0.02 nm were used to acquire multiple interference signals in the frequency domain without a mechanical phase-shifting process. Among the many peaks in the Fourier-transformed signals of the measured interferograms, only three interference signals representing three different optical path differences were selected to extract both the geometrical thickness and group refractive index of a silicon wafer simultaneously. A single point on a double-sided polished silicon wafer was measured 90 times repetitively every two seconds. The geometrical thickness and group refractive index were found to be 476.89 µm and 3.6084, respectively. The measured thickness is in good agreement with that of a contact type method within the expanded uncertainty of contact-type instruments. Through an uncertainty evaluation of the proposed method, the expanded uncertainty of the geometrical thickness was estimated to be 0.12 µm (k = 2).