Fabrication of large area two- and three-dimensional polymer photonic crystals using single refracting prism holographic lithography

TLDR: In this paper, a simple single refracting prism was used to split and recombine a single incoming laser beam to form multiple-beam interference pattern simultaneously, leading to a much more simple optical setup than previously reported laser holographic lithography techniques.

Abstract: We demonstrate an approach for easy fabrication of two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal and three-dimensional (3D) face-centered-cubic (fcc)-type photonic crystal (PhC) microstructures in a photosensitive polymer by applying a simple single refracting prism. This prism enables the splitting and recombining of a single incoming laser beam to form multiple-beam interference pattern simultaneously. Thus, antivibration equipment and complicated optical alignment system are not required, leading to a much more simple optical setup than previously reported laser holographic lithography techniques. Large-scale (over 1cm2) 2D hexagonal and 3D fcc-type PhCs have been produced. Reflection/transmission measurements performed on the fabricated 3D fcc-type PhC structures agree well with the corresponding band structure calculation.