Reduction of Zero-Order Fringe Intensity in Interferometric Lithography

Christopher Lesesne
Advisor: Dr. Rockward
Micro/Nano Optics Research and Engineering (MORE) Lab, Morehouse College
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE)
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) HBCU Student Research Program 2010
1. ABSTRACT
This paper reports a mathematical approach to reducing the intensity of the zero-order
fringe in diraction patterns; particularly in the process of interferometric lithography
that makes use of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) laser light. The geometry of the optical
gratings that are used for fabrication in this process, dictate the diraction pattern and
the intensities of the fringe orders. In amplitude division interferometry, the higher order
components of the diracted laser light can be directed and recombined onto a sample
for fabrication. However, the central-order component, carrying a sucient amount of
energy to damage the sample, must be blocked with a barrier. The energy of the central-
order component is not eciently utilized in this setup and the low intensity of the higher
orders results in a lengthened fabrication time. Mathematical modeling of a diraction
grating that reduces the intensity of the central-order and disperses that energy amongst
the higher orders reveals the strengthening of the intensity of the higher orders. These
components can be directed and recombined onto samples for more ecient fabrication
and more dened nano-structures without damage. Existing literature and the simulation
in this work suggest the use of sinusoidal phase gratings to achieve this reduction. The
use of mathematical expressions that involve damping the sampling function, sinc(x), by
Bessel functions of the rst kind, J
q
(x), provides a way to model the intensity pattern with
a suppressed central-order component.
2. INTRODUCTION
Interferometric Lithography
Interferometric lithography (IL) is utilized for the fabrication of various devices such as
customized diraction gratings, nanoscale radio-frequency oscillator arrays, and devices for
magnetic storage and DNA sequencing [1]. By directing and recombining diracted light
from a coherent light source onto photo-resistive samples, the resulting interference pattern
can be used to periodically etch grooves into the sample. The advantage of this process
is its ability to etch periodic structures on relatively large surface areas without making
contact with the sample [2]. For the purposes of this report, the coherent light that is
diracted lies in the extreme ultraviolet region.
1
2
Amplitude Division Interferometry
This setup involves the use of a diraction grating that serves as a beam-splitter, followed
by the recombination of diracted coherent light after being reected by mirrors on either
side. The resulting combined light is then directed onto a photo-resistive sample. A
traditional amplitude division interferometer requires that the central beam (zero-order
fringe) be blocked by a barrier that is positioned between the grating and the sample
screen because the intensity of the central beam will damage the sample.
Sinusoidal Gratings
These diraction gratings have a sinusoidal groove pattern that can result in greater inten-
sities of the higher-order diraction fringes. The grating frequency, or number of grooves
per unit length, and the groove depth are signicant factors in the intensity of the diracted
light.
3. COMPUTATION/SIMULATION
The intensity pattern of diracted light through a traditional rectangular-groove grating
is given by: I = I
0
_
sin
N
2
sin

2
_
2
sinc
2
_

2
_
, where I
0
is the maximum intensity of the incident
light (intensity of the zero-order), N is the number of slits in the grating, and =
2

d sin ,
with d as the slit separation. However, standard rectangular-grooved gratings yield dirac-
tion patterns that decrease in intensity with increasing order, with the zero-order carrying
the maximum intensity. More importantly, for the purpose of this research, the intensity
pattern for a sinusoidal phase grating can be plotted by utilizing the following expression
[3]:
I (x, y) =
_

2
z
_
2

q=
J
q
2
_
m
2
_
sinc
2
_

z
(x qfz)
_
sinc
2
_
y
z
_
,
where variations of, m, result in changes in the intensities of the various fringe or-
ders. A comprehensive description of the parameters within this expression follows: -
width/length of grating (or aperture by which grating is bound), - wavelength of incident
light (UV light of 46.9nm for our purposes), z - observation distance (distance from grat-
ing to screen), J
q
- qth-order Bessel function of the rst kind, m - length of phase delay,
x - horizontal dimension of grating/screen ( to grating slits), y - vertical dimension of
grating/screen ( to grating slits), f - grating frequency (number of slits per unit length).
To focus on a cross-section of this intensity pattern, taking the limit as y 0, slightly
simpies this expression, yielding:
I (x) =
_

2
z
_
2

q=
J
q
2
_
m
2
_
sinc
2
_

z
(x qfz)
_
3
Additionally, various values of
m
2
serve as roots of J
q
. For the values of, m, that make
m
2
a root of J
0
, this theoretically results in the complete reduction of the central-order
fringe. Utilizing a graph of J
q
2
vs.
m
2
leads to plotting the intensity pattern expression in
MATLab for m = 5
_
m
2
=
5
2
_
, which is a root of J
0
2
(see Figure 1). Furthermore, at the
value
m
2
=
5
2
, the 1st and 2nd order fringes will be relatively close to their peak intensity.
The peak intensity for a given order, q, is given by I
q
=
_

2
z
J
q
(
m
2
)
_
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
m/2
J
2 q

(
m
/
2
)


J
0
J
1
J
2
Figure 1. Graph of J
q
2
(
m
2
) vs.
m
2
for q = 0, 1, 2
The MATLab code that was written to generate the diraction intensity patterns, which
are shown in Section 4, is provided in the appendix. It should be noted that the summation
in the intensity pattern equation had to be taken over large values of q, relative to the rst
three orders, as MATLab would not allow for a complete summation over all values of q.
Many of the parameters in the expression for the intensity pattern can be varied to further
minimize the zero-order fringe. The gures in this report do not necessarily provide the
optimal solution for suppressing the zero-order fringe, only an example of an intensity
pattern with a noticeably reduced zero-order. As the graph of the squared Bessel functions
for the rst three orders suggests, there are multiple values for m that should result in a
reduced, if not completely vanished, zero-order.
4
4. RESULTS
The following graphs display intensity patterns that model the use of sinusoidal phase grat-
ings in interferometric lithography, utilizing an amplitude division interferometry setup.
1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
x 10
6
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
x 10
6
x
487933927835048268406240394538783/2535301200456458802993406410752)
2
+...+ 8405319983771505/67108864/
2
sin( (927218419445629
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y
Figure 2. Intensity pattern showing suppressed zero-order fringe for m = 5.
6 4 2 0 2 4 6
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
x 10
8
q
(2576910468023360461941264238616682430464 besselj(q, 5/2)
2
)/20574295145532338207299820539921
I
q
Figure 3. Intensities of individual fringe orders (the graph does not display
the symmetry with respect to order)
5. CONCLUSION
This report suggests that sinusoidal gratings with a relatively low phase delay (m = 5
for this study) can be used to signicantly reduce the intensity of the zero-order fringe in
diraction patterns resulting from ultraviolet light. The MATLab simulation for the this
5
report assumed a grating length of 3.24mm, a grating-to-sample distance of 20mm, and a
grating frequency of 1800 grooves per millimeter. Unfortunately, the m = 5 solution did
result in the complete reduction of the zero-order, which suggests that the other parameters
of the experimental set-up have an aect on the zero-order intensity. This is not the optimal
solution, and there can be multiple solutions that reduce the zero-order. The multiple
solutions to the squared Bessel function graph suggest that there are various m-values for
the intensity pattern equation that results in a reduced zero-order, but the intensities of
the higher orders may be decreased. Two m-values that could serve as possible solutions
to reducing the zero-order are m = 12 (
m
2
= 6) and m = 18 (
m
2
= 9).
6. FUTURE WORK
This report does not oer the optimal solution for suppressing the zero-order fringe and the
parameters of the diraction intensity pattern equation can be varied to nd the charac-
teristics of a sinusoidal grating that would provide the most reduced zero-oder fringe. This
report also suggests that there are multiple solutions (multiple m values) for reducing
the zero-order fringe. A further process could involve writing additional lines of code for
the existing MATLab program that would minimize the intensity of the zero-order fringe,
and display the parameter values that result in this minimal intensity. Also, more complex
grating geometries could be explored that possess the capability to suppress the zero-order
fringe.
7. APPENDIX
MATLab code for producing intensity patterns
nm = 1e-9;
um = 1e-6;
mm = 1e-3;
l = input(Length/width of grating (mm)?);
l = l*mm;
lambda = input(Wavelength of incident light (nm)?); % wavelength of 46.9nm for our
purposes
lambda = lambda*nm;
z = input(Distance from grating to sample (mm)?);
z = z*mm;
m = input(Length of phase delay?); % m = 5, for our purposes, but various values should
still be tried
6
m = 5;
gratfreq = input(Grating frequency(grooves/mm)?); % number of slits per unit length;
try a value 1800
% symbolic summation for sinusoidal phase grating
syms q x; % where q is the summation index and x serves as the displacement from the
central fringe;
J = besselj(q, m/2); % qth -order Bessel function
f = ((J)
2
) (sinc((l/(lambda z)) (x (q gratfreq lambda z))))
2
; % f f(q,x), the
function within the summation
S = symsum(f,q,-200,200); % symbolic summation used to calculate intensity pattern, sum
= S(x)
I
q
= ((l
2
) besselj(q, m/2)/(lambda z))
2
; % expression for peak intensity for qth-order
fringe, I
q
I = (((l
2
)/(lambda z))
2
) S; % expression for intensity pattern, I(x)
% plot intensity patterns
gure;
ezplot(I
q
)
hold on;
gure;
ezplot(I,[-gratfreq*lambda*z,gratfreq*lambda*z])
8. REFERENCES
[1] P. Wachulak, M. Grisham, S. Heinbuch, D. Martz, W. Rockward, D. Hill, J. J. Rocca,
C.S. Menoni, E. Anderson, M. Marconi, Journal of the Optical Society of America B 25,
07B104, (2008)
[2] P. Wachulak, M. Capeluto, W. Rockward, D. Hill, C. Iemmi, E. Anderson, C. Menoni,
J. J. Rocca, M. Marconi, Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, 8(2),
(2009)
[3] Goodman, Joseph W., Introduction to Fourier Optics, 1st Edition, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1968P. Wachulak, M. Capeluto, W. Rockward, D. Hill, C. Iemmi, E. Anderson,
C. Menoni, J. J. Rocca, M. Marconi, Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and
MOEMS, 8(2), (2009)
7
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported in part by an appointment to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission HBCU Research Participation Program administered by the Oak Ridge Insti-
tute for Science and Education (ORISE). Dr. Willie Rockward (Department of Physics,
Morehouse College) should also be acknowledged for his advisement and support in this
ongoing research project.