In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate and compare single-exposure multiple-beam interference lithography based on conventional laser interference, evanescent wave interference, and surface plasmon interference. The proposed two-beam and four-beam interference approaches are carried out theoretically and verified experimentally, employing the proposed configurations so as to realize the patterning of one- and two-dimensional periodic features on photoresists. A custom-fabricated grating is employed in the configuration in order to achieve two- and four-beam interference.

A planar layer configuration for surface plasmon interference lithography to realize one-dimensional periodic nanostructure is proposed and numerically demonstrated in this letter. High electric field distribution compared to conventional prism based configuration is found to be achievable with this and hence facilitate high contrast and high resolution features with good exposure depth. Finite-difference time-domain simulation results indicate that the feature size approximately at sub-65-nm is achievable by using silver metal layer and a p-polarized 427 nm wavelength illumination. Simulated resist profiles, using cellular automata model, obtained through this proposed configuration is also presented.

A grating-based multiple beams interference lithography for printing of periodic two-dimensional features is proposed in this paper both theoretically and experimentally. The analytical expressions of the interference intensity distributions are derived with the photoresist layer modeled as a sandwiched layer. The influence of polarization of incident beams on the profiles of resist features are also investigated and discussed via both experimental and theoretical approaches. Good agreement between theoretical and experimental results is observed.

This work presents a theoretical study of using the interference of multiple counter-propagating evanescent waves as a lithography technique to print periodic two dimensional features. The formulation of the three dimensional Cartesian space expression of an evanescent wave is presented. In this work, the evanescent wave is generated by the total internal reflection of a plane wave at the interface between a incident dielectric material and a weakly absorbing transmission medium. The influences of polarization, incident angle and the phase shifting of the incident plane waves on the evanescent wave interference are studied. Numerical simulation results suggest that this technique enables fabrication of periodic two dimensional features with resolution less than one third the wavelength of the irradiation source.

In this paper, fabrication of nano-scale 3-D features by total internal reflection generated single exposure counter propagating multiple evanescent waves interference lithography (TIR-MEWIL) in a positive tone resist is investigated numerically. Using a four incident plane waves configuration from an 364nm wavelength illumination source, the simulated results indicate that the proposed technique shows potential in realizing periodic surface relief features with diameter as small as 0.08lambda and height-to-diameter aspect ratio as high as 10. It is also demonstrated that the sensitivity of multiple evanescent waves' interference depends on the polarization and phase of the incident plane waves, and can be tailored to obtain different geometry features. A modified cellular automata algorithm has been employed to simulate three-dimensional photoresist profiles that would result from exposure to the studied evanescent waves interference configurations.