Patent — available for licensing
Fabrication of Binary Phase Photon Sieves
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
Conventional methods for focusing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light are challenged by its high energy and short wavelength, which result in chromatic aberrations and material limitations. Photon sieves, which utilize perforated membranes, offer a solution for EUV applications requiring large-area structures. Achieving higher optical efficiency demands that the opaque region of a binary amplitude sieve to be thin enough to allow transparency while still enabling the necessary phase shift. In EUV applications, submicron-thick membranes help mitigate high material losses, but fabricating sieves with small features – such as 2 µm openings with 2 µm gaps — remains a significant challenge. To address these limitations, innovators at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have developed a method for fabricating binary phase photon sieves using silicon and niobium to achieve precise focus and high-resolution imaging in applications like solar observation.