Comprehensive theoretical analysis of the period chirp in laser interference lithography.

We present a theoretical investigation on laser interference lithography used for the exposure of linear gratings. The focus is on the geometry of the arising interference lines on the substrate, in particular on their period and orientation, depending on the illumination geometry as determined by the setup. The common approach with point sources emitting spherical wavefronts is considered for the illumination. Three different cases are discussed, namely the interference between two point sources with either two convex, two concave or mixed, i.e., convex and concave wavefronts. General equations focusing mainly on the calculation of the period and the orientation of the grating lines are derived for each of the three exposure cases considering arbitrarily positioned point sources and arbitrarily shaped substrates. Additionally, the interference of symmetrically positioned point sources illuminating plane substrates is investigated, as these boundary conditions significantly simplify the derived equations.