Theoretical investigation of two-dimensional sub-wavelength structures fabricated by multi-beam surface plasmon interference lithography

¹ School of Science, Lanzhou University of Technology - Lanzhou 730050, China
² College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Northwest Normal University - Lanzhou 730070, China
³ Center for Micro- and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei 230026, China

^(a) wangxx869@lut.edu.cn (corresponding author)

Received: 5 July 2021
Accepted: 5 October 2021

Abstract

In this study, multi-beam surface plasmon (SP) interference lithography was theoretically proposed and demonstrated to fabricate periodic two-dimensional sub-wavelength structures. The lithography structures were based on an attenuated total reflection prism used to excite the SPs using a 442 nm laser. Circular lattices with periods of 166 and 288 nm were successfully obtained via three- and six-beam SP interference lithography, respectively; these lattices exhibited an identical feature size of 96 nm. Square dot arrays with a 177 nm period and 88.5 nm spot size were obtained by four-beam SP interference lithography. The proposed lithography technology has a simple structure and is economical; further, it may provide an effective method for the fabrication of two-dimensional sub-wavelength structures.