Flexible coherent diffraction lithography by tunable phase arrays in lithium niobate crystals

Flexible coherent diffraction lithography is proposed and preliminarily tested by means of an optical phase mask. The phase mask consisted of a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of reversed ferroelectric domains engineered in a z-cut lithium niobate substrate and was electro-optically tunable. Appropriate phase shift values across adjacent reversed domains were induced by the application of an external electric field along the z-axis of the crystal via transparent electrodes. Photolithographic exposures of the self-imaging near-field diffraction intensity patterns, at various planes corresponding to the Talbot distances, were performed by using different values of the driving electric field signal.