Nikon Corporation

Yoshifumi Tokoyoda

Kenzaburo Suzuki

Masato Shibuya

Hiroshi Ooki

Masaomi Kameyama

Toshihiko Ozawa

Masaya Komatsu

A diffractive optical element includes at least a first diffractive element and a second diffractive element. The conditional expression 0.5&#x2266;D/DS&#x2266;0.9 is preferably satisfied where DS denotes the summation of the optimum designed groove height of the first diffractive element dS and that of the second diffractive element dS, and D denotes the summation of an actual groove height of the first diffractive element dand that of the second diffractive element d. At least one of the first diffractive element and the second diffractive element is made of glass. At least one of the first diffractive element and the second diffractive element is made of resin. The optimum designed value of groove heights of the diffractive optical element are determined so as to satisfy a condition for correcting chromatic aberration at both d-line and g-line.

Diffractive optical element and method for manufacturing same

A diffractive optical element includes a first diffractive element and a second diffractive element that is made of a material different from that of the first diffractive element and is cemented with the first diffractive element, forming a diffraction grating at the cemented surface. A shade film is formed on a wall surface of each groove of the diffraction grating to enhance the angular characteristic of the grating.

Diffractive optical element

The present invention relates to a projection exposure method and an exposure apparatus for projecting a pattern on a photo-mask through a projection optical system onto a predetermined photosensitive material. The photosensitive material is a nonlinear photosensitive material in which the effective light intensity distribution is nonlinear to the intensity of incident exposure light. Further, multiple exposure is made with plural patterns having a certain lateral shift therebetween, or multiple exposure is made with shifting the position of an identical pattern, whereby multiple exposure is effected with patterns different in intensity distribution on the photosensitive material. A high-resolution pattern can be formed over the resolution limit of projection optical system by the above arrangement.

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Chiba-ken, Japan

Yoshifumi Tokoyoda