Silicon nanostructures fabricated by scanning probe oxidation and tetra-methyl ammonium hydroxide etching

Fabrication of silicon nanostructures is a key technique for the development of monolithically integrated optoelectronic circuits. We demonstrated that the process of scanning probe microscope (SPM) oxidation and anisotropic tetra-methyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) etching is a low-cost and reliable method to produce smooth and uniform silicon nanostructures on a variety of silicon substrates. Etched structures with a pitch of 100 nm, positive- and negative-contrast structures, and features height greater than 100 nm have been produced on bare silicon, and Si3N4-coated and silicon-on-insulator wafers. Evolution of hexagonal pits on two-dimensional grid structures were shown to depend on the pattern spacing and orientation with respect to Si(110) crystal directions. We successfully combined SPM oxidation with traditional optical lithography in a mixed, multilevel patterning method for realizing micrometer-and nanometer-scale feature sizes, as required for photonic device designs. The combination of SPM oxidation and TMAH etching is a promising approach to rapid prototyping of functional nano-photonic devices. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.