  We detail on a continuous colloidal pattern replication by using contact
photolithography. Chrome on quartz masks are fabricated using colloidal
nanosphere lithography and subsequently used as photolithography stamps.
Hexagonal pattern arrangements with different dimensions (980, 620 and 480 nm,
using colloidal particles with respective diameters) have been studied. When
the mask and the imaged resist layer were in intimate contact, a high fidelity
pattern replica was obtained after photolithography exposure and processing. In
turn, the presence of an air-gap in between has been found to affect the
projected image onto the photoresist layer, strongly dependent on the mask
feature size and air-gap height. Pattern replication, inversion and
hybridization was achieved for 980 nm-period mask; no hybridization for the 620
nm; and only pattern replication for the 480 nm. These results are interpreted
in the framework of a "Talbot-Fabry-Perot" effect. Numerical simulations
corroborate with the experimental findings providing insight into the involved
processes highlighting the important parameters affecting the exposure pattern.
The approach allows complex subwavelength patterning and is relevant for a 3D
layer-by-layer printing.
