The diffraction of short pulses is studied on the basis of the Miyamoto-Wolf theory of the boundary diffraction wave, which is a mathematical formulation of Young's idea about the nature of diffraction. It is pointed out that the diffracted field is given by the superposition of the boundary wave pulse (formed by interference of the elementary boundary diffraction waves) and the geometric (direct) pulse (governed by the laws of geometrical optics). The case of a circular aperture is treated in details. The diffracted field on the optical axis is calculated analytically (without any approximation) for an arbitrary temporal pulse shape. Because of the short pulse duration and the path difference the geometric and the boundary wave pulses appear separately, i.e., the boundary waves are manifested in themselves in the illuminated region (in the sense of geometrical optics). The properties of the boundary wave pulse is discussed. Its radial intensity distribution can be approximated by the Bessel function of zero order if the observation points are in the illuminated region and far from the plane of the aperture and close to the optical axis. Although the boundary wave pulse propagates on the optical axis at a speed exceeding c, it does not contradict the theory of relativity.

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From a model of focusing with lenses that includes the effects of the lens variable thickness, material dispersion, aperture, spherical and chromatic aberrations, we characterize the conditions under which a lens can focus to few-cycle, transform-limited pulses propagating without distortion along the focal region. A lens also allows to control the carrier-envelope phase shift along the focus. The carrier-envelope phase shift is drastically reduced by focusing with specific focal lengths and input spot sizes, which are of the same order as those typically used in experiments involving focusing for phase-sensitive, light-matter interactions.

A new concept based on a Fabry-Pérot interferometer for the generation of nondiffracting Bessel beams is described and proposed for potential applications in microlithography such as the fabrication of small isolated patterns. It was experimentally demonstrated that the depth of focus can be increased by a factor of about 2, and simultaneously the transverse resolution improved by a factor of 1.6, when using this technique to image contact holes. The properties of simultaneous imaging of two contact holes were also investigated. It was shown experimentally that, even in the most critical case ͑when the first diffraction rings overlap͒, undesirable interference effects between the adjacent contact holes can be eliminated by means of a phase shifting technique.

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