A Review: Laser Interference Lithography for Diffraction Gratings and Their Applications in Encoders and Spectrometers

The unique diffractive properties of gratings have made them essential in a wide range of applications, including spectral analysis, precision measurement, optical data storage, laser technology, and biomedical imaging. With advancements in micro- and nanotechnologies, the demand for more precise and efficient grating fabrication has increased. This review discusses the latest advancements in grating manufacturing techniques, particularly highlighting laser interference lithography, which excels in sub-beam generation through wavefront and amplitude division. Techniques such as Lloyd's mirror configurations produce stable interference fringe fields for grating patterning in a single exposure. Orthogonal and non-orthogonal, two-axis Lloyd's mirror interferometers have advanced the fabrication of two-dimensional gratings and large-area gratings, respectively, while laser interference combined with concave lenses enables the creation of concave gratings. Grating interferometry, utilizing optical interference principles, allows for highly precise measurements of minute displacements at the nanometer to sub-nanometer scale. This review also examines the application of grating interferometry in high-precision, absolute, and multi-degree-of-freedom measurement systems. Progress in grating fabrication has significantly advanced spectrometer technology, with integrated structures such as concave gratings, Fresnel gratings, and grating-microlens arrays driving the miniaturization of spectrometers and expanding their use in compact analytical instruments.