Nonmaximally-entangled-state quantum photolithography

Abstract

Many previous works on quantum photolithography are based on maximally-entangled states (MES). In this paper, we generalize the MES quantum photolithography to the case where two light beams share a $N$-photon nonmaximally-entangled state. we investigate the correlations between quantum entanglement and quantum photolithography. It is shown that for nonlocal entanglement between the two light beams the amplitude of the deposition rate can be changed through varying the degree of entanglement described by an entanglement angle while the resolution remains unchanged, and found that for local entanglement between the two light beams the effective Rayleigh resolution of quantum photolithography can be resonantly enhanced.