Lithography-free glass surface modification by self-masking during dry etching

Eric A. Hein; Dennis Fox; Henning Fouckhardt

doi:10.1117/1.3586787

1 January 2011 Lithography-free glass surface modification by self-masking during dry etching

Eric A. Hein, Dennis Fox, Henning Fouckhardt

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Nanophotonics, Vol. 5, Issue 1, 051703 (January 2011). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3586787

Abstract

Glass surface morphologies with defined shapes and roughness are realized by a two-step lithography-free process: deposition of an ∼10-nm-thin lithographically unstructured metallic layer onto the surface and reactive ion etching in an Ar/CF₄ high-density plasma. Because of nucleation or coalescence, the metallic layer is laterally structured during its deposition. Its morphology exhibits islands with dimensions of several tens of nanometers. These metal spots cause a locally varying etch velocity of the glass substrate, which results in surface structuring. The glass surface gets increasingly rougher with further etching. The mechanism of self-masking results in the formation of surface structures with typical heights and lateral dimensions of several hundred nanometers. Several metals, such as Ag, Al, Au, Cu, In, and Ni, can be employed as the sacrificial layer in this technology. Choice of the process parameters allows for a multitude of different glass roughness morphologies with individual defined and dosed optical scattering.

Citation Download Citation

Eric A. Hein, Dennis Fox, and Henning Fouckhardt "Lithography-free glass surface modification by self-masking during dry etching," Journal of Nanophotonics 5(1), 051703 (1 January 2011). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3586787

Published: 1 January 2011

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