On the development of a low-cost lithographic interferometer

Abstract

Interference lithography is a technique for making one- and two-dimensional periodic nanostructures using interference of two coherent light beams. Despite their successes, the size, maintenance, and cost of interference lithography tools have prevented periodic nanostructures from being ubiquitous in academia and industry. Here, a novel approach is described whereby the conventional optical source - a bulky and expensive metal-vapor laser - is replaced by a newly available, low-cost blue laser diode. Additionally, the passive alignment of a lens tube is utilized to simplify the construction of a spatial filter. The resulting custom-built interference lithography tool is able to print large-area (~ cm2 ) periodic patterns. The tool has a small footprint (~0.2 M2 ) and can be assembled for less than 6000 USD.