Fabrication of Submicrometer InP Pillars by Colloidal Lithography and Dry Etching

• A simple method for the fabrication of submicrometer InP pillars with large surface area coverage has been developed based on a combination of colloidal lithography and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching technique using Cl-2/H-2/CH4/Ar chemistry. Pillars with different sizes could be fabricated by using colloidal SiO2 particles with different sizes dispersed on the sample serving as masks. Pillars with lateral diameters as small as 60 nm and aspect ratios as high as 10: 1 have been obtained. The effects of etch parameters such as radio-frequency power, ICP power, and etching time on pillar fabrication are investigated. By a suitable choice of etch parameters and utilizing erosion of colloidal (mask) SiO2 particle during etching, the height of the pillars as well as their shape can be modified from nearly cylindrical to conical shapes. Such a control on the shape of the structures in addition to the large surface coverage could be useful for applications in photovoltaics and for the fabrication of photonic crystals. For instance, continuous grading of the refractive index can be obtained for surfaces covered with conical pillars, which can be used as antireflecting surfaces in solar cells or for light extraction in light emitting diodes.

Keyword

LIGHT-EMITTING-DIODES

NATURAL LITHOGRAPHY

ARRAYS

GAAS

NANOPILLARS

EFFICIENCY

PARTICLES

NANOWIRE

CRYSTAL

MASK

TECHNOLOGY

TEKNIKVETENSKAP

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)