Imaging properties of photon sieve with a large aperture

We report the optimization design and experimental results for the imaging properties of a photon sieve, which is formed on a layer of metal film supported by a thin glass substrate. As an example, we considered a micro-optical element with parameters of diameter D=50 mm, 3,564,290 hole number, and 10 μm minimum micro-hole diameter, which was designed and fabricated by means of surface machining technique in the lab. To evaluate its imaging performance, both on-axis and off-axis imaging experiments were carried out using the element. Compared to a Fresnel zone plate lens with the same feature size, the photon sieve has super imaging performance. Some quantitative analyses and initial qualitative explanations were given for the imaging characteristics.