Study of the spatial resolution of laser thermochemical technology for recording diffraction microstructures

The thermochemical method for recording data, which is based on local laser oxidation of a thin metal film with subsequent etching of the unirradiated region, is an alternative to laser photolithography and direct laser removal of the film material. This recording technology is characterised by the absence of thermal and hydrodynamic image distortions, as in the case of laser ablation, and the number of necessary technological operations is much smaller as compared with the photomask preparation in classical photolithography. The main field of application of the thermochemical technology is the fabrication of diffraction optical elements (DOEs), which are widely used in printers, bar-code readers, CD and DVD laser players, etc. The purpose of this study is to increase the resolution of thermochemical data recording on thin chromium films.