Direct laser interference technology and potential applications

Development of direct laser interference technology (DLIT) is reviewed in this paper. With the merits of being independent on the pretreatment, mask and pattern transfer processes, DLIT is demonstrated a facile and efficient method of producing sub-micro structures on various material surfaces. From a representative perspective, a number of past achievements, containing theoretical and practice aspects, attained by the nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond laser interference techniques are introduced. Advantages and limitations in comparison to one another are also addressed. With the progress of the emerging subwavelength structures (e.g. metasurfaces, plasmonic structures) offering the fascinating possibility of controlling the behaviour of light in an unprecedented way, the perspectives of potential applications benefited from DLIT are finally given.