On the efficiency of quantum lithography

TL;DR

This paper examines two competing theories of quantum lithography, analyzing recent experimental results to assess the practical limitations of achieving high resolution and efficiency simultaneously.

Contribution

It compares two theoretical models of quantum lithography and evaluates their predictions against recent experimental data, highlighting the trade-offs involved.

Findings

The experiment favors the model with less spatial correlation retention.

Quantum lithography's resolution-efficiency trade-off is more unfavorable than previously thought.

The model fitting the data suggests limited practical efficiency for quantum lithography.

Abstract

Quantum lithography promises, in principle, unlimited feature resolution, independent of wavelength. However, in the literature at least two different theoretical descriptions of quantum lithography exist. They differ in to which extent they predict that the photons retain spatial correlation from generation to the absorption, and while both predict the same feature size, they differ vastly in predicting how efficiently a quantum lithographic pattern can be exposed. Until recently, essentially all experiments reported have been performed in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish between the two theoretical explanations. However, last year an experiment was performed which gives different outcomes for the two theories. We comment on the experiment and show that the model that fits the data unfortunately indicates that the trade-off between resolution and efficiency in quantum lithography is very unfavourable.