A Two-Step Etching Method to Fabricate Nanopores in Silicon

A cost effectively method to fabricate nanopores in silicon by only using the conventional wet-etching technique is developed in this research. The main concept of the proposed method is a two-step etching process, including a premier double-sided wet etching and a succeeding track-etching. A special fixture is designed to hold the pre-etched silicon wafer inside it such that the track-etching can be effectively carried out. An electrochemical system is employed to detect and record the ion diffusion current once the pre-etched cavities are etched into a through nanopore. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can cost effectively fabricate nanopores in silicon.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing

Preparation of atomically clean and flat Si(100) surfaces by low-energy ion sputtering and low-temperature annealing

Si(100) surfaces were prepared by wet-chemical etching followed by 0.3-1.5keV Ar ion sputtering, either at elevated or room temperature. After a brief anneal under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, the resulting surfaces were examined by scanning tunneling microscopy. We find that wet-chemical etching alone cannot produce a clean and flat Si(100) surface. However, subsequent 300eV Ar ion sputtering at room temperature followed by a 973K anneal yields atomically clean and flat Si(100) surfaces suitable for nanoscale device fabrication.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Applied Surface Scienc

Wet chemical etching mechanism of silicon

We review what can be said on wet chemical etching of single crystals from the viewpoint of the science of crystal growth. Starting point is that there are smooth and rough crystal surfaces. The kinetics of smooth faces is controlled by a nucleation barrier that is absent on rough faces. The latter therefore etch faster by orders of magnitude. The analysis of the diamond crystal structure reveals that the {111} face is the only smooth face in this lattice-other faces might be smooth only because of surface reconstruction. In this way we explain the minimum of the etch rate in KOH:H2O in the <001> direction. Two critical predictions concerning the shape of the minimum of the etch rate close to <001> and the transition from isotropic to anisotropic etching in HF:HNO3 based solutions are tested experimentally. The results are in-agreement with the theor

Chemical etching and organometallic chemical vapor deposition on varied geometries of GaAs

Results of micron-spaced geometries produced by wet chemical etching and subsequent OMCVD growth on various GaAs surfaces are presented. The polar lattice increases the complexity of the process. The slow-etch planes defined by anisotropic etching are not always the same as the growth facets produced during MOCVD deposition, especially for deposition on higher-order planes produced by the hex groove etching

Multi-silicon ridge nanofabrication by repeated edge lithography

We present a multi-Si nanoridge fabrication scheme and its application in nanoimprint\ud lithography (NIL). Triple Si nanoridges approximately 120 nm high and 40 nm wide separated\ud by 40 nm spacing are fabricated and successfully applied as a stamp in nanoimprint lithography.\ud The fabrication scheme, using a full-wet etching procedure in combination with repeated edge\ud lithography, consists of hot H3PO4 acid SiNx retraction etching, 20% KOH Si etching, 50% HF\ud SiNx retraction etching and LOCal Oxidation of Silicon (LOCOS). Si nanoridges with smooth\ud vertical sidewalls are fabricated by using Si 110 substrates and KOH etching. The presented\ud technology utilizes a conventional photolithography technique, and the fabrication of multi-Si\ud nanoridges on a full wafer scale has been demonstrated

Double heterostructure lasers with facets formed by a hybrid wet and reactive-ion-etching technique

Double heterostructure lasers were fabricated in which one of the laser facets was produced by a hybrid wet and reactive-ion-etching technique. This technique is suitable for GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructure lasers and utilizes the selectivity of the plasma in preferentially etching GaAs over GaAlAs. Lasers fabricated by this technique are compatible with optoelectronic integration and have threshold currents and quantum efficiency comparable to lasers with both mirrors formed by cleaving. The technique enables the use of relatively higher pressures of noncorrosive gases in the etch plasma resulting in smoother mirror surfaces and further eliminates the nonreproducibility inherent in the etching of GaAlAs layers

Structuring of sapphire by laser-assisted methods, ion-beam implantation, and chemical wet etching

Sapphire is an attractive material for micro- and opto-electronic systems applications because of its excellent mechanical and chemical properties. However, because of its hardness, sapphire is difficult to machine. Titanium-doped sapphire is a well-known broadly tunable and short-pulse laser material and a promising broadband light source for applications in low-coherence interferometry. We investigated several methods to fabricate rib structures in sapphire that can induce channel waveguiding in Ti:sapphire planar waveguides. These methods include direct laser ablation, laser-micromachined polyimide stripes, selective reactive ion etching, and ion-beam implantation followed by chemical wet etching. Depending on the method, we fabricated channels with depths of up to 1.5 µm. We will discuss and compare these methods. Reactive ion etching through laser-structured polyimide contact-masks has so far provided the best results in terms of etching speed and roughness of the etched structures

Effect of n+-GaN subcontact layer on 4H–SiC high-power photoconductive switch

High-power photoconductive semiconductor switching devices were fabricated on 4H–SiC. In order to prevent current crowding, reduce the contact resistance, and avoid contact degradation, a highly n-doped GaN subcontact layer was inserted between the contact metal and the high resistivity SiC bulk. This method led to a two orders of magnitude reduction in the on-state resistance and, similarly, the photocurrent efficiency was increased by two orders of magnitude with the GaN subcontact layer following the initial high current operation. Both dry etching and wet etching were used to remove the GaN subcontact layer in the channel area. Wet etching was found to be more suitable than dry etching