We present quantitative three dimensional images of grooves on a writable Blu-ray Disc based on a single objective Mirau type interferometric microscope, enhanced with a microsphere which is considered as a photonic nanojet source. Along the optical axis the resolution of this microsphere assisted interferometry system is a few nanometers while the lateral resolution is around 112 nm. To understand the physical phenomena involved in this kind of imaging we have modelled the interaction between the photonic jet and the complex disc surface. Agreement between simulation and experimental results is demonstrated. We underline that although the ability of the microsphere to generate a photonic nanojet does not alone explain the resolution of the interferometer, the nanojet can be used to try to understand the imaging process. To partly explain the lateral super-resolution, the potential role of coherence is illustrated. The presented modality may have a large impact on many fields from bio-medicine to nanotechnology.

In the present work, we have investigated the combination of a superresolution microsphere-assisted 2D imaging technique with low-coherence phase-shifting interference microscopy. The imaging performance of this technique is studied by numerical simulation in terms of the magnification and the lateral resolution as a function of the geometrical and optical parameters. The results of simulations are compared with the experimental measurements of reference gratings using a Linnik interference configuration. Additional measurements are also shown on nanostructures. An improvement by a factor of 4.7 in the lateral resolution is demonstrated in air, thus giving a more isotropic nanometric resolution for full-field surface profilometry in the far field.

We have measured mechanical and fracture properties of amorphous Al2O3 thin films deposited by atomic layer deposition with bulge test technique using a free-standing thin film membrane. Elastic modulus was determined to be 115 GPa for a 50-nm thick film and 170 GPa for a 15-nm thick film. Residual stress was 142 MPa in the 50-nm film while it was 116 MPa in the 15-nm film. XRR density was 3.11 g/cm 3 for the 50-nm film and 3.28 g/cm 3 for the 15-nm film. Fracture strength of the 15-nm film was 4.21 GPa while the 50-nm film had only 1.72 GPa at a 100 hPa/s pressure ramp rate. Fracture strength was observed to be positively strain-rate dependent. The effective volume of a circular film in bulge test was determined from a FEM model enabling comparison of fracture strength data between different techniques.