High resolution reduction catadioptric relay lens

摘要

An optical system of a NX reduction catadioptric relay lens having sub-half micron resolution over the ultraviolet band width is described. A spherical mirror (16) with a stop at the mirror is used to work at substantially the desired reduction ratio and the desired high numerical aperture sufficient to provide the desired high resolution. A beam splitting cube (22) with appropriate coatings (20) is used to form an accessible image of an object (6) on an image plane (8). Refracting correctors (7, 9) in the path of the slow beam incident on the mirror and in the path of the fast beam reflected on the mirror are designed to fix the aberrations of the image formed by the mirror. The beam splitter coatings are chosen in such a way that beams reflected from and transmitted therethrough suffer no net aberration as a result of multiple reflections within the thin film beam splitter coatings and therefore are substantially free of aberration, distortion and apodization which would result from the beam splitting surface in the absence of these coatings.