ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the basics of microoptical components as well as suitable manufacturing methods and systems. The manufacture of micro-optical components can be performed by different techniques such as laser machining or reactive ion etching. Microoptical components and systems have gained in importance in a number of different fields of applications in which pure microoptical, optoelectronic, or optomechanical systems are required. The size of microoptical components is merely some orders of magnitudes higher than the wavelength, resulting in a notable impact of the wave character of light on its propagation characteristics when passing through such devices and the imaging properties. Talbot observed that for a particular distance from the grating, the distribution of light intensity corresponds to the grating structure itself, forming a so-called Talbot self-image. Microoptical components can be specified by different parameters and quality scores based on physical properties or geometric parameters.
