Long-range in situ picometer measurement of the period of an interference field

A scanning reference grating (SRG) method is proposed for high-precision in situ measuring and controlling the period of a long-range interference field. The reference grating is produced with the in situ interference field; then it is used to obtain phase shift signal when scanning in the interference field. With the phase shift signal collected by the SRG system, before the exposure process of the holographic grating fabrication, the period and the period uniformity of the holographic grating can be evaluated directly from the interference field; then optical adjustment can be applied until the grating period is tuned to any certain desired value. Experiments of measurement and adjustment are conducted, and an interference field with period value of 833.335  nm±10  pm in 60 mm range is reached. The proposed method gives an efficient way to fabricate large gratings of an accurate period; furthermore, it provides a reliable tool that may lead us to picometer-level optical metrology and fabrication for the most advanced lithographic equipment and in other scientific fields.