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Micromachining of inorganic materials using plasma soft x‐rays
Author(s) -
Makimura Tetsuya,
Uchida Satoshi,
Fujimori Takashige,
Niino Hiroyuki,
Murakami Kouichi
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
electronics and communications in japan
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.131
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1942-9541
pISSN - 1942-9533
DOI - 10.1002/ecj.10080
Subject(s) - materials science , irradiation , laser , optics , nanolithography , soft lithography , plasma , surface micromachining , scanning electron microscope , optoelectronics , composite material , fabrication , medicine , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , quantum mechanics , nuclear physics
Abstract We have investigated nanomachining of inorganic materials using laser plasma soft X‐rays. The soft X‐rays were generated by irradiating Ta targets with pulsed Nd:YAG laser light. The laser plasma soft X‐rays were focused using an ellipsoidal mirror, which is designed so as to focus soft X‐rays at around 10 nm efficiently. The focused soft X‐rays were incident to the surfaces of inorganic materials such as silica glass, LiF, CaF 2 , and LiNbO 3 . It is found that these materials are ablated by soft X‐ray irradiation. In particular, silica glass can be ablated at rates of 0.2 to 150 nm/shot, which can be controlled by the intensity of soft X‐rays. It is remarkable that silica can be ablated smoothly with a roughness of 1 nm after 10 shots of soft X‐ray irradiation at a rate of 50 nm/shot. In order to demonstrate nanomachining of silica glass, we used contact masks on top of silica glass plates fabricated by electron beam lithography technique. The silica glass plates were irradiated with laser plasma soft X‐rays through the windows of the contact masks. We found that nanofabrication of trenches with a width of 70 nm was performed clearly. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 91(4): 45– 51, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10080