Morphology of periodic nanostructures for photonic crystals grown by glancing angle deposition

An enhancement of the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique called PhiSweep was used to grow slanted columns of silicon and titanium dioxide onto patterned substrates. The PhiSweep technique involves periodically rotating the substrate back and forth during the deposition process, which reduces column fanning caused by anisotropy in the shadowing conditions. The patterned substrates consisted of a tetragonal array of hillocks with 100, 200, and 300 nm periodicities and were fabricated using electron beam lithography. The PhiSweep method alters the tilt angle of the slanted columns compared with those grown using traditional GLAD. We present a derivation of the tilt angle of the slanted columns as a function of the parameters of the PhiSweep technique. The tilt angles of the silicon and titanium dioxide films were measured and agree with the predicted values. The films fabricated using the PhiSweep method are compared with similar films grown using traditional GLAD. The PhiSweep technique produced films with substantially less column fanning than those grown by traditional GLAD. This reduction in column fanning has extended the size range over which periodic GLAD structures, such as square spiral photonic crystals, can be grown.