Laser interference lithography is a powerful technique of subwavelength-scale patterning. However, this technique requires a complicated optical system, the precise control and complexity of which increases exponentially with increasing number of beams. In this study, a compact prism-based laser interference lithography system using optical fibers and a prism was proposed to simplify the technique. In this system, the beam splitter and mirrors in a typical laser interference lithography system were replaced by a designed prism, and the pattern could be easily changed by only changing the prism, without other modification, irrespective of the number of beams required. In addition, because the laser and the laser interference lithography system are connected by an optical fiber, the system can be moved easily and flexibly. The fabrication of various submicroscale line patterns, holes, and dot patterns with a 270–1400 nm pitch was achieved using the proposed laser interference lithography system.

Large-scale molecular dynamic simulations were conducted to study anisotropic wettability on one-dimensional (1D) nanopatterned surfaces. Hexadecane (C 16 H 34 ) and decane (C 10 H 22 ) nanodroplets were used as wetting liquids. Initially, surfaces with various intrinsic wettability (oleophobic and oleophilic) were produced using surface lattice size as a control parameter. These surfaces were subsequently patterned with 1D grooves of different sizes, and their anisotropic wettability was examined. The results show that anisotropic wettability strongly depends on intrinsic surface wettability and surface morphology. The results also demonstrate that the anisotropy in the contact angle is negligible for oleophobic surfaces. However, the anisotropy becomes more evident for oleophilic surfaces and increases with the degree of oleophilicity. Results suggest that anisotropy also depends on the surface morphology, including the patterns' width and height. Monitoring the droplet shape showed that more significant droplet distortion was associated with higher anisotropy. A clear association was lacking between the roughness ratio, r, and the degree of anisotropy. The observed average contact angle for 1D patterned oleophilic surfaces disagreed with the predicted values from the Wenzel theory. However, the theory could correctly predict the state of the droplet being Cassie−Baxter or Wenzel.

In this study, we developed an effective and rapid process for nanoscale ink printing, direct laser interference ink printing (DLIIP), which involves the photothermal reaction of a copper-based metal–organic decomposition ink. A periodically lined copper pattern with a width of 500 nm was printed on a 240 μm-wide line at a fabrication speed of 17 mm/s under an ambient environment and without any pre- or post-processing steps. This pattern had a resistivity of 3.5 μΩ∙cm, and it was found to exhibit a low oxidation state that was twice as high as that of bulk copper. These results demonstrate the feasibility of DLIIP for nanoscale copper printing with fine electrical characteristics.

The growing need for precision machining, which is difficult to achieve using conventional mechanical machining techniques, has fueled interest in laser patterning. Ultraviolet (UV) pulsed-lasers have been used in various applications, including the micro machining of polymers and metals. In this study, we investigated direct laser interference patterning of a silicon waver using a third-harmonic diode-pumped solid-state UV laser with a wavelength of 355 nm. Direct laser lithography is much more simple process compare to other submicro processing method. We have studied interference patterning for silicon wafers as a basic research for direct laser interference patterning on wafer surfaces without mask. And Finite element analysis (FEA) was performed for a 150° biprism using modeling software (COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4) to determine changes in the periodic patterns according to the focusing distance in the direct interference lithography experiment. In further study, we expect this technique to be applied to direct laser interference lithography on metals.