Method for fabricating large-area gratings with a uniform duty cycle without a spatial beam modulator

A fabrication method for large-area gratings with uniform duty without using a spatial beam modulator is introduced in this study. The inhomogeneity of gratings caused by flaws of the lens and stray light was solved by controlling exposure time within an appropriate range and selecting a suitable beam expansion aperture in the optical path. A model for representing this process was established by analyzing the effects of exposure and development time length, and experimental results exhibited good agreement with the simulation results. Finally, a grating with a period of 550 nm, a uniform duty cycle, and a diameter larger than 30 mm was achieved using a Mach–Zehnder interferometer optical path without a spatial beam modulator. The uniformity of this grating was observed via atomic force microscopy, and the results were highly desirable.