a-Si:H based two-dimensional photonic crystals

We describe the fabrication processes of silicon-based two-dimensional photonic crystals (2D-PCs) with a photonic band gap in the near-IR range. The procedures involve electron beam lithography followed by an anisotropic etching step of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Micrometric and submicrometric arrays of cylindrical holes are transferred using a poly-methylmethacrylate resist layer as a mask. A careful comparison between standard parallel plate reactive ion etching and inductively coupled plasma etching techniques is performed, aimed at obtaining periodic structures with high aspect ratio and good profile sharpness.     

High-Q factor single mode circular photonic crystal nano-resonator

In this work, the analysis, fabrication and optical characterization of a two-dimensional circular photonic crystal (2D-CPC) nano-resonator based on an air/GaAs/air slab waveguide are presented. Four InAs/InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) stacked layers emitting around 1300 nm at room temperature were embedded in a GaAs waveguide layer grown on an Al_0.7Ga_0.3As layer and GaAs substrate. The patterning of the structure and the membrane release were achieved by using electron beam lithography, ICP plasma etching and selective wet etching of the AlGaAs sacrificial layer. The micro-luminescence spectrum recorded from the fabricated nano-cavity shows a narrow optical transition at the resonance wavelength of about 1282 nm with a FWHM and Q-factor of 6.2 Å and more than 2000, respectively.     

Single layer silicon photonic crystal slab

We present here the fabrication and characterization of single layer silicon photonic crystal mirror on a silicon-on-insulator wafer. By a combination of electron beam lithography, fast atom beam etching with deep reactive ion etching, silicon photonic crystal slabs are achieved on 260 nm freestanding silicon membrane and sandwiched with air on the top and bottom. Their high refractive index contrasts enable photonic crystal slabs function as dielectric mirrors for externally incident light. The optical performances of fabricated photonic crystal slabs can be tuned by varying the width of separation grooves or the air-hole size, which represents a significant advantage of offering various approaches for optical response control.     

Ge quantum dot molecules and crystals: Preparation and properties

Templated self-organization has been used to prepare two-dimensional arrays as well as three-dimensional quantum dot crystals (QDC) containing Ge dots in a Si host crystal. Si(1 0 0) substrates have been patterned with two-dimensional hole gratings using extreme ultra-violet interference lithography (EUV-IL) and reactive ion etching. The EUV-IL was realized by multiple beam diffraction using Cr gratings on SiN_x membranes fabricated by e-beam lithography. Si/Ge overgrowth was performed by molecular beam epitaxy. The impact of the microscopic shape and size of the prepattern using the mask design and the EUV-IL exposure dose as parameters on the Ge dot nucleation has been studied with atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence measurements. Adjusting the growth parameters in multiple layer deposition the initial two-dimensional configuration was transferred into three-dimensional QDC.     

Fabrication of two-dimensional organic photonic crystal filter

A high quality two-dimensional photonic crystal filter made of polystyrene is fabricated by the method of focused ion beam etching. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmittance spectrum are used to characterize the properties of photonic crystal filter. The measured transmittance spectrum is in agreement with the theoretical one. It is found that the filtering properties of photonic crystal filter, including the position and quality factor of optical channel, can be tuned by adjusting the width of line defect. PACS 42.70.Qs; 61.46.+w; 81.15.-z     

A new fabrication technique for photonic crystals: Nanolithography combined with alternating-layer deposition

We propose two photonic crystal structures that can be created by combining nanolithography with alternating-layer deposition. Photonic band calculations suggest that a drilled alternating-layer photonic crystal combining two-dimensional (2D) alternating multilayers and an array of vertically drilled holes may achieve a full photonic bandgap. In addition, a 3D/2D/3D cross-dimensional photonic crystal, which sandwiches a 2D photonic crystal slab between three-dimensional (3D) alternating-layer photonic crystals, should provide better vertical confinement of light than a conventional index guiding slab. Fabrication techniques based on existing technologies (electron beam lithography, bias sputtering, and low-pressure ECR etching) require very few process steps. Our preliminary fabrication suggests that, by refining these technologies, we will be able to realize photonic crystals.     

Negative refraction at infrared wavelengths in a two-dimensional photonic crystal

We report on the first experimental evidence of negative refraction at telecommunication wavelengths by a two-dimensional photonic crystal field. Samples were fabricated by chemically assisted ion beam etching in the InP-based low-index constrast system. Experiments of beam imaging and light collection show light focusing by the photonic crystal field. Finite-difference time-domain simulations confirm that the observed focusing is due to negative refraction in the photonic crystal area.     

纳米压印技术制备表面光子晶体LED的研究

利用表面光子晶体能大幅提高发光二极管(LED)的外量子效率, 但如何制备大面积的纳米光子晶体是该研究方向的主要难点之一. 本文基于纳米压印技术在氮化镓基发光二极管(GaN-LED)表面制作孔状二维光子晶体. 通过以金属和聚合物双层掩膜干法刻蚀法, 得到了很好的光子晶体图形转移效果. 最终在LED的p-GaN层表面获得了大面积光子晶体, 周期为450 nm, 纳米孔直径为240 nm. 器件测试结果显示, 有表面光子晶体的LED比没有光子晶体的LED, 光致发光强度峰值提高到了7.2倍.     

感应耦合等离子体刻蚀InP/InGaAsP二维光子晶体结构的研究

为实现基于InP/InGaAsP材料的二维光子晶体结构低损伤、高各向异性的干法刻蚀，研究了对InP材料基于Cl₂/BCl₃气体的感应耦合等离子体刻蚀. 从等离子体轰击使衬底升温的角度分析了刻蚀机理，发现离子轰击加热引起的侧蚀与物理溅射在侧壁再沉积之间处于平衡时可以得到高各向异性刻蚀，平衡点将随ICP功率增高而向偏压减小方向移动，从而在近203 V偏压下得到陡直的侧壁. 在优化气体组分后，成功实现了光子晶体结构高各向异性的低偏压刻蚀. 关键词： 光子晶体 InP/InGaAsP 感应耦合等离子体 2/BCl₃')" href="#">Cl₂/BCl₃ 低偏压刻蚀     

Fabrication of Two-Dimensional Organic Photonic Crystal Microcavity

A two-dimensional polystyrene photonic crystal microcavity is fabricated by the method ot tocused ion Oeam etching. The scanning electron microscopy and the transmittance spectrum are used to characterize the properties of the photonic crystal microcavity. The quality factor and the transmittance of the photonic crystal microcavity is more than 530 and 90%, respectively. The measured results are in agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Atomic force microscopy investigation of surface roughness generated between SiO2 micro-pits in CHF3/Ar plasma

The present paper investigates the surface roughness generated by reactive ion etching (RIE) on the location between silicon dioxide (SiO₂) micro-pits structures. The micro-pit pattern on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) mask was created by an electron beam lithography tool. By using PMMA as a polymer resist mask layer for pattern transfer in RIE process, the carbon (C) content in etching process is increased, which leads to decrease of F/C ratio and causes domination of polymerization reactions. This leads to high surface roughness via self-organized nanostructure features generated on SiO₂ surface which was analyzed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique. The etching chemistry of CHF₃ plasma on PMMA masking layer and SiO₂ is analyzed to explain the polymerization. The surface root-mean-square (RMS) roughness below 1 nm was achieved by decreasing the RF power to 150 W and process pressure lower than 10 mTorr.     

A photonic crystal waveguide with silicon on insulator in the near-infrared band

A two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal waveguide in the \Gamma--K direction with triangular lattice on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate in the near-infrared band is fabricated by the combination of electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching. Its transmission characteristics are analysed from the stimulated band diagram by the effective index and the 2D plane wave expansion (PWE) methods. In the experiment, the transmission band edge in a longer wavelength of the photonic crystal waveguide is about 1590\,nm, which is in good qualitative agreement with the simulated value. However, there is a disagreement between the experimental and the simulated results when the wavelength ranges from 1607 to 1630\,nm, which can be considered as due to the unpolarized source used in the transmission measurement.     

All-optical tunable photonic bandgap microcavities with a femtosecond time response

An all-optical tunable photonic bandgap microcavity made from a two-dimensional polystyrene photonic crystal is fabricated by focused ion beam etching. The pump and probe scheme is adopted to measure tunability based on the femtosecond optical Kerr effect. An ultrafast response time of less than 120 fs is achieved for the tunable photonic bandgap microcavity. The microcavity resonant wavelength shifts 3.1 nm under excitation of 9.4 GW/cm2 pump intensity, which is in agreement with the theoretical prediction.     

Precise control of dry etching for nanometer scale air-hole arrays in two-dimensional GaAs/AlGaAs photonic crystal slabs

Precise control of highly anisotropic reactive-ion-beam-etching (RIBE) for GaAs/AlGaAs-based two-dimensional photonic crystals (2DPCs) is investigated in terms of the substrate temperature, T_s, ion accelerating voltage, V_i, and Cl₂ gas pressure, p. T_s is shown to influence the shape of the sidewall, while the balance of the physical etching dominated by the value of V_i and the chemical etching dominated by the value of p is essential for keeping smooth and vertical sidewalls of 100-nm-scale air-holes. 2DPC air-hole patterns are defined by an electron beam (EB) lithography machine and air-holes are dry-etched with the EB resist as an etching mask. The optimized balance between the V_i and p for 0.5-1.0-μm-deep air-holes results in the high-rate-etching regime given at V_i = 500 V and p = 8 × 10⁻⁴ Torr using a 650-nm-thick resist mask, while the optimized balance for 50-nm-scale fine air-holes results in the low-rate-etching regime given at V_i = 330 V and p = 5 × 10⁻⁴ Torr using a 350-nm-thick resist mask. In particular, the latter condition is essential for fabricating topology-optimized 2DPC air-hole arrays with the minimum air-hole-size of 50 nm or less. These process conditions definitely contribute to excellent measured transmission spectra in good agreement with the calculated one in a near-infrared range.     

Design of leaky modes of two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs to enhance the luminescence from Er3N@C80 fullerenes

We develop an effective way to engineer a two-dimensional GaAs photonic crystal slab with its leaky eigenmodes at desired wavelengths by investigating its spectral dispersion, particularly in terms of transmission efficiency spectra at different launch angles of the light beam. Structural parameters for the photonic crystal slab with leaky eigenmode wavelengths at both 1492 nm and 1519 nm are obtained. This may lead to the enhanced luminescence from erbium-doped trinitride-template fullerenes (Er₃N@C₈₀) on the surface of the photonic crystal slabs.     

Sub-microns period grating couplers fabricated by silicon mold

This paper describes a novel simple process suitable for fabrication of micro-periodic structure in optical waveguide. The mold was fabricated using electron beam lithography and fast atom beam etching. Sub-micron-scale patterns were transferred from silicon mold to polymer layer. Grating coupler was fabricated by the mold and normal optical mask. In the proposed method, no press which is needed for imprint lithography is required and the mold structure can be duplicated with high aspect ratio. Experimental coupling efficiency is about 25%. This technique can also be used to fabricate other nanometer-scale structures.     

微纳加工技术在光电子领域的应用

纳米光电子器件正在成为下一代光电子器件的核心.文章介绍了电子束光刻和电感耦合等离子体刻蚀为代表的微纳加工技术在光电子学器件中的应用,主要包括量子点激光器、量子点THz探测器和光子晶体器件.     

Tunable Goos-Hänchen shift for self-collimated beams in two-dimensional photonic crystals

We present finite-difference time-domain studies of the Goos-Hänchen effect observed at the reflection of a self-collimated beam from the surface of a two-dimensional photonic crystal. We describe a method of tuning the shift of the reflected beam in photonic crystals through the modification of the surface, first structurally, as a change in the radius of the surface rods, and then all-optically, with the addition of nonlinear material to the surface layer. We demonstrate all-optical tunability and intensity-dependent control of the beam shift.     

Imprint lithography of pyramidal photonic pillars using hydrazine etching

An inexpensive method to produce a pyramidal-type 2D photonic structures in the silicon substrate was proposed. The method is based on the combination of imprint lithography and wet Si1 0 0 etching in water solution of hydrazine, which etches 1 1 1 faces much more slowly than others. Thermally grown SiO₂ mask for the hydrazine etching was used, because single Al mask cannot be well bonded to the substrate and tends to peel during the etching. It was revealed that transmittance in the infrared spectrum region of the patterned silicon decreases by about five times compared with that of flat silicon substrate and this decrease is almost independent of the angle of the incident beam. In the infrared region, decrease of transmittance of the patterned samples is directly proportional to the wave number. The shape of formed pyramids has strong influence on the transmittance. Decrease of the transmittance is much more rapid and larger in the case of sharpless pillars.     

微纳加工技术在光电子领域的应用

纳米光电子器件正在成为下一代光电子器件的核心。文章介绍了电子束光刻和电感耦合等离子体刻蚀为代表的徽纳加工技术在光电子学器件中的应用。主要包括量子点激光器、量子点THz探测器和光子晶体器件。