Cross-scale fabrication of diffraction grating based on self-rebound properties of flexible substrate

This research proposes a method to fabricate gratings cross-scale by relying on the self-rebound properties of the flexible substrate. Compared with the traditional grating manufacturing method, the method has simple and high manufacturing efficiency, and can improve the electron beam lithography (EBL) process. First, an EBL is used to fabricate a grating structure with a period of 1µm on a silicon wafer, and the grating structure is replicated onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film. Then, the film with the grating structure is pasted on the stretched PDMS substrate to form a whole. Finally, the flexible substrate is released to obtain a grating structure with a period of less than 1µm. In this way, the grating period can be descended from the micron level to the sub-micron level, and the grating period can be controlled according to the magnitude of the pulling force, and it has the potential to use a grating master with one micron level period to manufacture multiple sub-micron gratings. The experimental results obtained a grating structure with a period of 800nm and a grating area of 5mm². The experimental results mainly verify the effectiveness of the proposed use of the self-rebound properties of flexible substrates to manufacture cross-scale gratings.