Mechanical Ruling of Diffraction Grating: Part I — Aluminum Film Preparation and Characterization

This is Part I of a two part series study on mechanical ruling of diffraction grating. Mechanical ruling is a major method for fabricating diffraction grating. In mechanical ruling, the first step is to prepare the Al film. High quality preparation technique is needed to satisfy the requirements of the thickness and the mechanical properties of the film. The purpose of this paper is to present a complete study on the preparation technique and mechanical properties of the Al film used for mechanical ruling of diffraction grating. XRD and SEM experiments and analysis were conducted to investigate the microstructure of the Al film and the mechanical properties of the Al film were measured using nanoindentation and scratch tests. The Al film exhibits favorable mechanical properties which will the key for the experimental and numerical simulation studies of mechanical ruling of diffraction grating.