Table top nanopatterning by de-magnified Talbot effect using a capillary discharge soft x-ray laser

Abstract

Reduced replicas of a periodic transparent mask were printed in the surface of a photoresist using Talbot effect. The transparent mask (or Talbot mask) was composed of an array of unit tiles distributed in a square matrix. The mask was illuminated by a coherent table top soft X-ray laser. To achieve the demagnification effect, the illumination beam was reflected in a spherical mirror. At determined positions given by the Talbot distance reduced replicas of the mask were obtained. The Talbot images produced smaller copies of the mask in the surface of a photoresist. Calculations based on Kirchhoff-Fresnel theory shows a good agreement with the experimental results. The limitations for this method are further discussed.