Fabrication of micro lenses using electron-beam lithography

Micro lenses are basic components of micro optics. We have proposed a new fabrication technique for micro lenses that uses electron-beam lithography and have developed an electron-beam lithography system that is specially designed for this purpose. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technique, ordinary-type Fresnel (zone-plate) lenses and a special-type lens for converting an incident Gaussian intensity distribution into a uniform one were designed and fabricated. It was found that these Fresnel (zone-plate) lenses have near-diffraction-limited performance. The fabrication technique and experimental results are discussed.