Tight focusing of plane waves from micro-fabricated spherical mirrors
Abstract
We derive a formula for the light field of a monochromatic plane wave that is truncated and reflected by a spherical mirror. Our formula is valid even for deep mirrors, where the aperture radius approaches the radius of curvature. We apply this result to micro-fabricated mirrors whose size scales are in the range of tens to hundreds of wavelengths, and show that sub-wavelength spot sizes can be achieved. This opens up the possibility of scalable arrays of tightly focused optical dipole traps without the need for high-performance optical systems.
- Publication:
-
Optics Express
- Pub Date:
- October 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1364/OE.16.017808
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0809.2339
- Bibcode:
- 2008OExpr..1617808G
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Optics;
- Physics - Atomic Physics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 5 color figures, 1 .sty file