Issue 5, 2020

Metal assisted chemical etching of silicon in the gas phase: a nanofabrication platform for X-ray optics

Abstract

High aspect ratio nanostructuring requires high precision pattern transfer with highly directional etching. In this work, we demonstrate the fabrication of structures with ultra-high aspect ratios (up to 10 000 : 1) in the nanoscale regime (down to 10 nm) by platinum assisted chemical etching of silicon in the gas phase. The etching gas is created by a vapour of water diluted hydrofluoric acid and a continuous air flow, which works both as an oxidizer and as a gas carrier for reactive species. The high reactivity of platinum as a catalyst and the formation of platinum silicide to improve the stability of the catalyst pattern allow a controlled etching. The method has been successfully applied to produce straight nanowires with section size in the range of 10–100 nm and length of hundreds of micrometres, and X-ray optical elements with feature sizes down to 10 nm and etching depth in the range of tens of micrometres. This work opens the possibility of a low cost etching method for stiction-sensitive nanostructures and a large range of applications where silicon high aspect ratio nanostructures and high precision of pattern transfer are required.

Graphical abstract: Metal assisted chemical etching of silicon in the gas phase: a nanofabrication platform for X-ray optics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
11 noy 2019
Accepted
17 fev 2020
First published
17 fev 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Horiz., 2020,5, 869-879

Metal assisted chemical etching of silicon in the gas phase: a nanofabrication platform for X-ray optics

L. Romano, M. Kagias, J. Vila-Comamala, K. Jefimovs, L. Tseng, V. A. Guzenko and M. Stampanoni, Nanoscale Horiz., 2020, 5, 869 DOI: 10.1039/C9NH00709A

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