Effects of a power and photon energy of incident light on near-field etching properties

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Vol. 123; no. 12; pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Yatsui, T., Saito, H., Nishioka, K., Leuschel, B., Soppera, O., Nobusada, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-12-2017; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Applied physics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical Sciences; Condensed Matter Physics; Diamonds; Energy consumption; Etching; Flat surfaces; Incident light; Machines; Manufacturing; Materials science; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; New Paradigms in Nano-optics and Nano-photonics; Optical and Electronic Materials; Other; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Processes; Properties (attributes); Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Titanium oxides; X-rays
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-017-1361-z

We developed a near-field etching technique for realizing an ultra-flat surfaces of various materials and structures. To elucidate the near-field etching properties, we have investigated the effects of power and the photon energy of the incident light. First, we established theoretically that an optical near-field with photon energy lower than the absorption edge of the molecules can induce molecular vibrations. We used nanodiamonds to study the power dependence of the near-field etching properties. From the topological changes of the nanodiamonds, we confirmed the linear-dependence of the etching volume with the incident power. Furthermore, we studied the photon energy dependence using TiO
2
nanostriped structures, which revealed that a lower photon energy results in a lower etching rate.