Super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging device and method based on optical tweezers microspheres
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of optics, in particular to a super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging method and device based on optical tweezers microspheres.
Background
As one of the mainstream micro-nano processing technologies, the laser direct writing technology is widely used for processing and manufacturing devices such as optical masks and optical microlenses. With the development of the micro-machining technology, on one hand, the laser direct-writing technology is required to be capable of performing direct-writing machining with sub-200 nm resolution, and on the other hand, the laser direct-writing technology is required to be aligned with the whole machining process to perform real-time in-situ imaging. Although the existing femtosecond laser two-photon processing technology has high processing resolution, the direct writing structure is difficult to be directly observed in the processing process, and the fundamental reason is that the transverse resolution of the used microscope is limited by diffraction limit, and the structure information below 200nm cannot be observed. The medium microsphere super-resolution imaging technology is proposed in 2011, has the characteristics of simplicity in operation, high resolution and the like, and micron-sized microspheres can be combined with a common microscope to observe a 50nm sample structure; on the other hand, microspheres are also used for super-resolution laser direct writing processing. Researchers have introduced a variety of manipulation techniques to manipulate the spatial position of microspheres, thereby increasing flexibility, such as probe, thin film coating, optical tweezers, and the like. The optical tweezers technology has the advantages of non-contact optics, high precision and the like, researchers use the optical tweezers to control the microspheres to conduct many laser direct writing related researches, but the imaging characteristics of the microspheres are not utilized to conduct real-time imaging on the direct writing structure in the direct writing process. The existing laser direct writing processing technology is difficult to realize super-resolution laser direct writing processing and super-resolution in-situ imaging simultaneously.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to solve the technical problem that super-resolution direct writing and super-resolution imaging cannot be considered in the existing laser direct writing processing technology, and provides a super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging method and device based on optical tweezers microspheres.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the technical scheme that:
a super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging device based on optical tweezers microspheres comprises a laser, a spatial light modulator, a microscope objective and microspheres, wherein the laser emits laser beams, the spatial light modulator modulates the laser beams expanded by a beam expanding system, a focusing light spot array is formed on a focal plane of the microscope objective after the laser beams pass through a 4f beam reducing system, and the optical tweezers are used for operating a plurality of microspheres to perform laser direct writing and imaging; the micro-sphere imaging device is characterized by further comprising an illumination and imaging light path, wherein the illumination and imaging light path comprises an illumination light source and an illumination module, illumination is provided for micro-sphere imaging, and super-resolution real-time imaging is realized while super-resolution laser direct writing is carried out.
Further, the beam expanding system is composed of a first lens and a second lens which are confocal.
Furthermore, the 4f beam-shrinking system is composed of a confocal third lens and a confocal fourth lens, the target surface of the spatial light modulator is positioned at the front focal point of the third lens, and the entrance pupil of the microscope objective is positioned at the rear focal point of the fourth lens.
Furthermore, different phase holograms are loaded on the spatial light modulator, different focusing light spot distributions are obtained on the focal plane of the microscope objective, the microspheres in the immersion medium are controlled, and the microspheres are used for carrying out strong focusing on the laser again on the direct-writing substrate to carry out laser direct writing and scanning imaging of any structure.
Furthermore, the illumination and imaging light path further comprises a light splitting piece and a dichroic mirror, and illumination light spots are incident to the microscope objective through the light splitting piece and the dichroic mirror.
Furthermore, the micro objective is an air objective, a water mirror or an oil mirror, the numerical aperture is between 0.6 and 1.5, and the magnification is between 40 and 100 times.
Further, the microsphere is SiO2、PS、PMMA、Al2O3BTG or TiO2The refractive index of various transparent or transparent-like microspheres is 1.4-2.3, and the diameter is 0.5-100 um.
Further, the laser is a semiconductor laser, a picosecond laser or a femtosecond laser, and the wavelength range is 400nm-1100 nm.
Further, the direct writing substrate is made of photoresist, thin film materials, metal sheets or proteins.
A method for laser direct writing and real-time imaging of a super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging device based on optical tweezers microspheres comprises the following steps:
after being expanded by the beam expanding system, the laser is incident on the spatial light modulator, the spatial light modulator loaded with the phase hologram modulates incident laser, emergent light spots are contracted by the 4f beam contracting system and then are incident on the microscope objective, a plurality of focusing light spots are generated on the focal plane of the microscope objective to capture a plurality of microspheres, and the microspheres focus the laser again to perform super-resolution laser direct writing; the illumination light source sequentially passes through the illumination module, the microscope objective and the microspheres for microscope illumination, and the microspheres are combined with the microscope objective to realize super-resolution real-time imaging.
The invention has the following technical effects:
the spatial light modulator is used for modulating incident laser to generate array light spots, the optical tweezers are used for controlling a plurality of microspheres, the microspheres can focus laser at the same time to perform super-resolution laser direct writing on the direct writing substrate at high flux, the direct writing path can be freely planned through the spatial light modulator to realize high flexibility, and the direct writing resolution can be below 100 nm; meanwhile, under the condition of proper illumination light, the microspheres can realize real-time imaging of the direct-writing structure by combining with the objective lens, and real super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging are realized.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a light path diagram of a super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging device based on optical tweezers microspheres according to the present invention;
wherein in the figure: 1. a laser; 2. a first lens; 3. a second lens; 4. a spatial light modulator; 5. a third lens; 6. a small aperture diaphragm; 7. a fourth lens; 8. a dichroic mirror; 9. a microscope objective; 10. microspheres; 11. an immersion medium; 12. a direct write substrate; 13. a three-dimensional controllable precision displacement table; 14. an illumination light source; 15. a lighting module; 16. a light splitting sheet; 17. an optical filter; 18. an imaging lens; 19. a camera; 20. and (4) a computer.
FIG. 2 is a super-resolution focusing diagram of microspheres.
FIG. 3 is a microsphere super-resolution image.
Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is further described in detail with reference to the following embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.
As shown in fig. 1, in the super-resolution laser direct writing and real-time imaging device based on optical tweezers microsphere of the present invention, a laser path sequentially includes a laser 1, a first lens 2, a second lens 3, a spatial light modulator 4, a third lens 5, an aperture diaphragm 6, a fourth lens 7, a dichroic mirror 8, a microscope objective 9, a microsphere 10, an immersion medium 11, a direct writing substrate 12, and a three-dimensional controllable precision displacement stage 13; the illumination and imaging optical path sequentially comprises an illumination light source 14, an illumination module 15, a light splitting sheet 16, an optical filter 17, an imaging lens 18, a camera 19 and a computer 20.
The first lens 2 and the second lens 3 have confocal characteristics, constitute and expand the beam system, can expand the incident laser facula of laser instrument 1 to spatial light modulator 4 target surface size, improve the utilization ratio.
The spatial light modulator 4 modulates the expanded laser beam, and after passing through a 4f beam-shrinking system, a focusing light spot array is formed on the focal plane of the microscope objective 9, and the optical tweezers are used for controlling the microspheres 10 to perform laser direct writing and imaging.
Different phase holograms are loaded on the spatial light modulator 4, different focusing light spot distributions can be obtained on the focal plane of the microscope objective 9, the microspheres 10 in the immersion medium 11 can be controlled through reasonably planning a path, and the microspheres 10 are used for carrying out laser direct writing with any structure on the direct writing substrate 12 through the secondary strong focusing of the laser.
The third lens 5 and the fourth lens 7 are confocal to form a 4f beam-shrinking system, the size of a light spot can be shrunk to be matched with the size of an entrance pupil of the microscope objective 9, the target surface of the spatial light modulator 4 is positioned at the front focal position of the third lens 5, the entrance pupil of the microscope objective 9 is positioned at the rear focal position of the fourth lens 7, and the aperture diaphragm 6 is positioned at the confocal position of the third lens 5 and the fourth lens 7, so that 0-level light and high-level secondary light can be filtered, and the influence of stray light is reduced.
The illumination light source 14 generates high-quality illumination light spots through the illumination module 15, and the high-quality illumination light spots are incident to the microscope objective 9 through the beam splitter 16 and the dichroic mirror 8 to provide illumination for microsphere imaging, so that super-resolution real-time imaging is realized while super-resolution direct writing is performed.
The illumination module 15 may be in either critical illumination mode or kohler illumination mode or dark field illumination, providing high quality illumination.
The microscope objective 9 can be an air objective, a water mirror or an oil mirror, the numerical aperture is between 0.6 and 1.5, and the magnification is between 40 and 100 times.
The microspheres 10 used may be SiO2、PS、PMMA、Al2O3、BTG、TiO2The refractive index of the various transparent or transparent-like microspheres is 1.4-2.3, the diameter is 0.5um-100um, the microspheres have good optical transparency, and the immersion medium 11 around the microspheres 10 can be air, water or objective oil.
The direct-write substrate 12 used may be photoresist, thin film materials and metal sheets, proteins, and various photo-or photo-thermal sensitive materials.
The working process of the invention is as follows: the laser 1 is expanded by a first lens 2 and a second lens 3 and then is incident on a spatial light modulator 4, the spatial light modulator 4 loaded with a phase hologram modulates incident laser, emergent light spots are contracted by a third lens 5 and a fourth lens 7 and then enter a microscope objective 9 through a dichroic mirror 8, a plurality of focusing light spots are generated on a focal plane of the microscope objective 9 to capture a plurality of microspheres 10, the microspheres 10 focus laser again to perform super-resolution laser direct writing on a direct writing substrate 12, the resolution can reach sub-100 nm, and large-area direct writing can be realized by matching with the movement of a three-dimensional controllable precise displacement table 13; the illumination light source 14 sequentially passes through the illumination module 15, the beam splitter 16, the dichroic mirror 8, the microscope objective 9 and the microsphere 10 for microscope illumination, the microsphere 10 can realize super-resolution real-time imaging of the direct writing structure by combining with the microscope objective 9, the imaging result is shown in fig. 3, and the image is collected by the camera 19 and is input into the computer 20.
The device has partial parameters that the diameter of an emergent light spot of a laser 1 is 2mm, the diameter of a circumscribed circle of a target surface of a spatial light modulator 4 is 20mm, in order to fully utilize the total pixel number, a 10x beam expanding system is formed by the second lens 3 and the first lens 2, the ratio of the focal length of the second lens 3 to the focal length of the first lens 2 is 10, if the diameter of an entrance pupil of a microscope objective lens 9 is 5mm, the focal length of the third lens 5 to the focal length of the fourth lens 7 is larger than 4, a proper beam contracting system is formed, and laser is guaranteed to completely enter the microscope objective lens 9.
In the present invention, the parameters associated with microsphere 10 are as follows: the microspheres 10 may be SiO with a refractive index of 1.462Microspheres, PMMA microspheres with refractive index of 1.51, PS microspheres with refractive index of 1.59 and Al with refractive index of 1.6-1.652O3Microspheres, MF microspheres with refractive index of 1.68, BTG microspheres with refractive index of 1.9-2.1, TiO with refractive index of 2.1-2.32The microsphere has 10 size of 0.5-100 um, good optical transparency and size uniformity.
The spatial light modulator 4 of the invention has the phase hologram change and the microsphere 10 super-resolution direct-writing random pattern relation: in order to realize the super-resolution inscription of any pattern by using the optical tweezers microsphere 10, a motion path of the microsphere 10 needs to be planned according to a target pattern, a series of phase holograms are generated and loaded on the spatial light modulator 4, light spots are focused on a focal plane of the microscope objective 9 to be continuously changed, the microsphere 10 is driven by a plurality of light spots to move, and the high-flux super-resolution laser direct writing of any pattern is realized by using the strong focusing characteristic (as shown in fig. 2) of the microsphere.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the invention, and that any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.