Fabrication of large-area grating structures through laser ablation

A Grating-Interferometer setup is shown to be ideally suited for the fabrication of high quality periodic structures over large sample areas via laser ablation. Virtually perfect line structures with periods in the submicron range are easily obtained. The capabilities and limitations of the new setup are analyzed theoretically for nanosecond and femtosecond laser sources with different coherence properties. The theoretical predictions are verified experimentally for various sample materials.