Nanophotonic structure formation by dry e-beam etching of the resist: resolution limitation origins

Abstract

A wide range of structures for nanophotonics and optoelectronics can be formed by dry e-beam etching of the resist (DEBER). High resist sensitivity due to chain depolymerization reaction provides efficient etching with high throughput of the method. The structures obtained by the DEBER in this research are well-rounded diffraction gratings, binary gratings and staircase profiles. The major disadvantage of DEBER is poor lateral resolution, which may be caused by different physical mechanisms. Four groups of possible mechanisms leading to the resolution limitation are determined and the influence of some mechanisms is estimated.