Reflective microoptical element array fabricated by photofabrication technique

The authors present reflective microoptical element arrays fabricated by a photofabrication technique. The three-dimensional base of the microoptical element array is photofabricated by exposing photopolymerizable resin to a light beam through a grayscale mask. Reflective film on the photopolymerize: base of the optical element is introduced to prevent serious problems in photofabricated refractive optical elements, such as when the optical characteristics of the elements fundamentally depends on the spectroscopic property of the material of the photofabricated optical element. The relationship between the pixel value in the grayscale bitmap image used for making the grayscale transparency mask and the cure depth of the photofabricated base is experimentally clarified for a photopolymerizable resin. 15 x 15 unit convex and concave micromirror arrays, in which each optical element has a diameter of 930 mum, have been batch fabricated. The focusing capability of the fabricated concave micromirror array is demonstrated.