High Resolution Electron Beam Lithography Research Articles

Novel Etch-Resistant Molecular Glass Photoresist Based on Pyrene Derivatives for Electron Beam Lithography.

Novel t-butyloxycarbonyl-protected molecular glass photoresists with pyrene as the core (Pyr-8Boc and Pyr-4Boc) were designed and synthesized. The thermal stability and film-forming ability were measured to assess their applicability for lithography. Pyr-Boc (Pyr-8Boc and Pyr-4Boc) photoresists were evaluated by high-resolution electron beam lithography (EBL), acting as chemically amplified resists. Pyr-4Boc showed a better lithography performance, achieving 25 nm line/space patterns at the dose of 50 μC/cm2. Under SF6/O2 plasma, the etch selectivity of the Pyr-4Boc photoresist to silicon was 12.3, which is twice that of the commercially available poly(methyl methacrylate) photoresist (950 k). The lithography mechanism of EBL was further investigated. Theoretical calculations of HOMO/LUMO orbital energies, cyclic voltammetry, and fluorescence quenching experiments were conducted to confirm the electron-transfer reactions between the Pyr-Boc and photoacid generator. The study provides an option of high sensitivity and etch-resistant photoresist for EBL.

Approaching Angstrom-Scale Resolution in Lithography Using Low-Molecular-Mass Resists (

Resists that enable high-throughput and high-resolution patterning are essential in driving the semiconductor technology forward. The ultimate patterning performance of a resist in lithography is limited because of the trade-off between resolution, line-width roughness, and sensitivity; improving one or two of these parameters typically leads to a loss in the third. As the patterned feature sizes approach angstrom scale, the trade-off between these three metrics becomes increasingly hard to resolve and calls for a fundamental rethinking of the resist chemistry. Low-molecular-mass monodispersed metal-containing resists of high atom economy can provide not only very high resolution but also very low line-width roughness without sacrificing sensitivity. Here we describe a modular metal-containing resist platform (molecular mass <500 Da) where a molecular resist consists of just two components: a metal and a radical initiator bonded to it. This simple system not only is amenable to high-resolution electron beam lithography (EBL) and extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) but also unites them mechanistically, giving a consolidated perspective of molecular and chemical processes happening during exposure. Irradiation of the resist leads to the production of secondary electrons that generate radicals in the initiator bonded to metal. This brings about an intramolecular rearrangement and causes solubility switch in the exposed resist. We demonstrate record 1.9-2.0 nm isolated patterns and 7 nm half-pitch dense line-space features over a large area using EBL. With EUVL, 12 nm half-pitch line-space features are shown at a dose of 68 mJ/cm2. In both of these patterning techniques, the line-width roughness was found to be ≤2 nm, a record low value for any resist platform, also leading to a low-performance trade-off metric, Z factor, of 0.6 × 10-8 mJ·nm3. With the ultimate resolution limited by instrumental factors, potential patterning at the level of a unit cell can be envisaged, making low-molecular-mass resists best poised for angstrom-scale lithography.

Feasibility study of fabricating 20 nm resolution dielectric Fresnel zone plates with ultrahigh aspect ratio for EUV optics

EUV light optics are either reflective or diffractive due to the substantial absorption characteristics by almost all materials. Despite great successes in manufacturing integrated circuit chips, reflective EUV optics are still unfriendly to small-to-medium enterprise (SME) because of the enormous costs. Recently, diffractive EUV optics has come to the light in hopes to be able to establish manufacturing nanoscale products and inspecting nanoscale structures. Diffractive zone plates with high resolution in EUV wavelengths are urgently needed. This paper reports our latest success in developing 20 nm resolution zone plates for focusing and imaging in the EUV and soft X-ray regions. It firstly discusses the diffraction efficiency of FZPs tailored for 13.5 nm wavelength to decide the essential height of the zone plate. Then, Monte Carlo simulation method was used to figure out the achievable zone plate parameters by high-resolution electron beam lithography (EBL). Finally, this work systematically explored the viability of nanofabricating top-tier 20 nm resolution hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) zone plates with the duty cycle ratio nearing 1:1 and the aspect ratio approaching 13:1 on 50 nm thick Si3N4 membranes.

Self-wavefront interference using transverse splitting holography

Manufacturing diffractive lenses with a high Numerical Aperture (NA) is a challenging task due to limitations in lithography methods and the inverse relation between the width and the radius of the zones. With low-resolution lithography techniques such as photolithography, the zone width reaches the lithography limit within a short radius, resulting in low-NA diffractive lenses. With high-resolution electron beam lithography, it is possible to manufacture high-NA diffractive lenses by prolonged writing. However, in this case, the width of the outermost zones becomes subwavelength, inducing undesirable polarization effects. In this proof-of-concept study, a holography solution has been demonstrated to enhance the imaging resolution of low-NA diffractive lenses. The light from an object is partly modulated by the low-NA diffractive lens and interfered with the remaining unmodulated light outside the area of the diffractive lens. This self-interference hologram of the object is processed in the computer with the point spread hologram to reconstruct the object with a resolution corresponding to the NA of the image sensor. This new imaging technique is called Self-Wavefront Interference using Transverse Splitting Holography (SWITSH). A resolution enhancement of ∼10 times has been demonstrated using a low-NA diffractive lens and SWITSH compared to direct imaging with the same low-NA diffractive lens.

Graphene Nanogap Interdigitated Asymmetric Electrodes for Photodetection

This work proposes a high-performance asymmetric gold/graphene/platinum photodetector. The new photodetector, operating without bias, integrates interdigitated 100 nm spaced metallic contacts that induce a built-in potential and a short carrier path, allowing an improvement in the separation and collection of the photocarriers. A chemical vapor deposition graphene layer is transferred onto the interdigitated electrodes elaborated using high-resolution electron-beam lithography. Three devices with different side dimensions (100, 1000, and 3000 µm) are fabricated, and their photoresponsivities are evaluated at different wavelengths. The 100 µm device shows the highest photoresponsivity of 358 A/W at a 400 nm illumination. These promising results confirm the proposed design’s ability to increase the photodetector’s active area, improve light absorption, and achieve high separation and collection of photogenerated carriers. This makes it of great interest for optoelectronic applications.

High-performance deterministic in situ electron-beam lithography enabled by cathodoluminescence spectroscopy

The application of solid-state quantum emitters in real-world quantum information technologies requires precise nanofabrication platforms with high process yield. Self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots with excellent emission properties have proven to be among the best candidates to meet the needs of a number of novel quantum photonic devices. However, their spatial and spectral positions vary statistically on a scale that is far too large for their system integration via fixed lithography and inflexible processing schemes. We solve this severe problem by introducing a flexible and deterministic manufacturing scheme based on precise and convenient cathodoluminescence spectroscopy followed by high-resolution electron-beam lithography. The basics and application examples of this advanced in situ electron-beam lithography are described in this article. Although we focus here on quantum dots as photon emitters, this nanotechnology concept is very well suited for the fabrication of a variety of quantum nanophotonic devices based on quantum emitters that exhibit suitably strong cathodoluminescence signals.

Negative-tone molecular glass photoresist for high-resolution electron beam lithography.

A low molecular weight organic compound containing bis-phenol A backbone (BPA-6OH) is reported as a negative-tone photoresist. This material has a high glass transition temperature and excellent thermal stability. A good contrast, well-resolved line pattern around 73.4 nm and sensitivity of 52 µC cm−2 can be received for negative-tone molecular glass photoresist upon exposure in electron beam lithography system. It indicates that the negative-tone molecular glass photoresist is one of the promising candidates for use in electron beam lithography.

Nanopatterning of Weak Links in Superconducting Oxide Interfaces.

The interface between two wide band-gap insulators, LaAlO and SrTiO (LAO/STO), hosts a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas (q2DEG), two-dimensional superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and giant Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The co-existence of two-dimensional superconductivity with gate-tunable spin-orbit coupling and multiband occupation is of particular interest for the realization of unconventional superconducting pairing. To investigate the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter, phase sensitive measurements of the Josephson effect are required. We describe an approach for the fabrication of artificial superconducting weak links at the LAO/STO interface using direct high-resolution electron beam lithography and low-energy argon ion beam irradiation. The method does not require lift-off steps or sacrificial layers. Therefore, resolution is only limited by the electron beam lithography and pattern transfer. We have realized superconducting weak links with a barrier thickness of 30–100 nm. The barrier transparency of the weak links can be controlled by the irradiation dose and further tuned by a gate voltage. Our results open up new possibilities for the realization of quantum devices in oxide interfaces.

A study of nano-structural effect on the polarization characteristics of metallic sub-wavelength grating polarizers in visible wavelengths

The structural effect of subwavelength gratings as the polarizer on the polarization characteristics in visible wavelengths (400–700 nm) is systematically investigated through both numerical simulation with Finite Difference Time Doman algorithm and experiments. The grating parameters such as the material, the pitch, the duty cycle, the height and the cross-sectional shape of the grating are addressed in this work. The optimized range for those parameters is worked out, based on the desired performance margin at the level of 70% transmittance and 50:1 for the extinction ratio. Polarization performance such as the transmittance over 70% and the extinction ratio above 50:1 has been experimentally demonstrated by the 200 nm pitched grating in Al with the height of 150 nm, which was fabricated by high resolution electron beam lithography in this work, guided by the simulation result. Au grating as the polarizer was also compared but ruled out in this work because of the poor performance in polarization. This work is essential in developing grating based polarizers for polarimetric detection and imaging in visible wavelengths.

Multiplication and division of the orbital angular momentum of light with diffractive transformation optics

We present a method to efficiently multiply or divide the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light beams using a sequence of two optical elements. The key element is represented by an optical transformation mapping the azimuthal phase gradient of the input OAM beam onto a circular sector. By combining multiple circular-sector transformations into a single optical element, it is possible to multiply the value of the input OAM state by splitting and mapping the phase onto complementary circular sectors. Conversely, by combining multiple inverse transformations, the division of the initial OAM value is achievable by mapping distinct complementary circular sectors of the input beam into an equal number of circular phase gradients. Optical elements have been fabricated in the form of phase-only diffractive optics with high-resolution electron-beam lithography. Optical tests confirm the capability of the multiplier optics to perform integer multiplication of the input OAM, whereas the designed dividers are demonstrated to correctly split up the input beam into a complementary set of OAM beams. These elements can find applications for the multiplicative generation of higher-order OAM modes, optical information processing based on OAM beam transmission, and optical routing/switching in telecom.

Non-paraxial design and fabrication of a compact OAM sorter in the telecom infrared

A novel optical device is designed and fabricated in order to overcome the limits of the traditional sorter based on log-pol optical transformation for the demultiplexing of optical beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). The proposed configuration simplifies the alignment procedure and significantly improves the compactness and miniaturization level of the optical architecture. Since the device requires to operate beyond the paraxial approximation, a rigorous formulation of transformation optics in the non-paraxial regime has been developed and applied. The sample has been fabricated as 256-level phase-only diffractive optics with high-resolution electron-beam lithography, and tested for the demultiplexing of OAM beams at the telecom wavelength of 1310 nm. The designed sorter can find promising applications in next-generation optical platforms for mode-division multiplexing based on OAM modes both for free-space and multi-mode fiber transmission.

Holographic Silicon Metasurfaces for Total Angular Momentum Demultiplexing Applications in Telecom

The simultaneous processing of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and polarization has recently acquired particular importance and interest in a wide range of fields ranging from telecommunications to high-dimensional quantum cryptography. Due to their inherently polarization-sensitive optical behavior, Pancharatnam–Berry optical elements (PBOEs), acting on the geometric phase, have proven to be useful for the manipulation of complex light beams with orthogonal polarization states using a single optical element. In this work, different PBOEs have been computed, realized, and optically analyzed for the sorting of beams with orthogonal OAM and polarization states at the telecom wavelength of 1310 nm. The geometric-phase control is obtained by inducing a spatially-dependent form birefringence on a silicon substrate, patterned with properly-oriented subwavelength gratings. The digital grating structure is generated with high-resolution electron beam lithography on a resist mask and transferred to the silicon substrate using inductively coupled plasma-reactive ion etching. The optical characterization of the fabricated samples confirms the expected capability to detect circularly-polarized optical vortices with different handedness and orbital angular momentum.

Micro-tags for art: covert visible and infrared images using gap plasmons in native aluminum oxide

Artwork often needs to be verified for authenticity during transactions. Electronic tags and labels are easily spotted and hence counterfeited. A covert and effective tag needs to be: (1) microscopic, (2) camouflaged into the surroundings, and (3) contain multiple sets of information. Here, we developed aluminum (Al) nanostructures that resonate across the ultraviolet (UV) to infrared (IR) spectra for use in micro-tags with varying colors of similar brightness and containing two sets of information in the visible and IR. Native Al2O3 on Al films was measured to be ~4–7 nm thick, enabling resonances to be supported by Al disks with diameters merely ~1/6th of the wavelength at the fundamental mode. Through accurate modeling of the nanostructures and high-resolution electron-beam lithography, we designed and fabricated a printed micro-tag on silicon. This micro-tag requires image processing to extract a quick response (QR) code in the visible, and 1.2 μm IR illumination (or visible light darkfield imaging) to extract a covert barcode. The compact and multi-spectral encoding of prints demonstrated here is particularly suited for discreet tagging of art and high-value merchandise.

Pancharatnam–Berry Optical Elements for Spin and Orbital Angular Momentum Division Demultiplexing

A Pancharatnam–Berry optical element is designed, fabricated, and optically characterized for the demultiplexing of beams with different polarization and orbital angular momentum states at the telecom wavelength of 1310 nm. The geometric phase control is achieved by fabricating properly-oriented subwavelength gratings on a silicon substrate, inducing a spatially-variant form birefringence. The digital grating pattern is transferred to the silicon substrate with a two-step nanofabrication protocol, using inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching to transfer the resist pattern generated with high-resolution electron beam lithography. The optical characterization of the sample confirms the expected capability to sort circularly polarized optical beams with different handedness and orbital angular momentum. Encompassing optical element design and silicon photonics, the designed silicon metasurface paves the way to innovative devices for total angular momentum mode division multiplexing with unprecedented levels of integration.

A compact diffractive sorter for high-resolution demultiplexing of orbital angular momentum beams

The design and fabrication of a compact diffractive optical element is presented for the sorting of beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light. The sorter combines a conformal mapping transformation with an optical fan-out, performing demultiplexing with unprecedented levels of miniaturization and OAM resolution. Moreover, an innovative configuration is proposed which simplifies alignment procedures and further improves the compactness of the optical device. Samples have been fabricated in the form of phase-only diffractive optics with high-resolution electron-beam lithography (EBL) over a glass substrate. A soft-lithography process has been optimized for fast and cheap replica production of the EBL masters. Optical tests with OAM beams confirm the designed performance, showing excellent efficiency and low cross-talk, with high fidelity even with multiplexed input beams. This work paves the way for practical OAM multiplexing and demultiplexing devices for use in classical and quantum communication.

Electrically activated spin-controlled orbital angular momentum multiplexer

We present and test the integration of a static orbital angular momentum mode multiplexer with a dynamical geometric-phase optical element, enabling on-demand spin-controlled angular momentum multiplexing. A diffractive optic multiplexer fabricated by 3D high-resolution electron beam lithography performs a conformal mapping for the conversion from linear to azimuthal phase gradients. The latter is functionalized by a dynamic spin-orbit add-on that consists of a self-engineered electrically activated liquid crystal optical vortex generator having large clear-aperture and high-resolution. By combining several functionalities based on the optical angular momentum of light in a compact manner, the proposed hybrid device could find applications in next-generation high-dimensional mode switchers and routers based on orbital angular momentum.

Transparent Nanopore Cavity Arrays Enable Highly Parallelized Optical Studies of Single Membrane Proteins on Chip.

Membrane proteins involved in transport processes are key targets for pharmaceutical research and industry. Despite continuous improvements and new developments in the field of electrical readouts for the analysis of transport kinetics, a well-suited methodology for high-throughput characterization of single transporters with nonionic substrates and slow turnover rates is still lacking. Here, we report on a novel architecture of silicon chips with embedded nanopore microcavities, based on a silicon-on-insulator technology for high-throughput optical readouts. Arrays containing more than 14 000 inverted-pyramidal cavities of 50 femtoliter volumes and 80 nm circular pore openings were constructed via high-resolution electron-beam lithography in combination with reactive ion etching and anisotropic wet etching. These cavities feature both, an optically transparent bottom and top cap. Atomic force microscopy analysis reveals an overall extremely smooth chip surface, particularly in the vicinity of the nanopores, which exhibits well-defined edges. Our unprecedented transparent chip design provides parallel and independent fluorescent readout of both cavities and buffer reservoir for unbiased single-transporter recordings. Spreading of large unilamellar vesicles with efficiencies up to 96% created nanopore-supported lipid bilayers, which are stable for more than 1 day. A high lipid mobility in the supported membrane was determined by fluorescent recovery after photobleaching. Flux kinetics of α-hemolysin were characterized at single-pore resolution with a rate constant of 0.96 ± 0.06 × 10-3 s-1. Here, we deliver an ideal chip platform for pharmaceutical research, which features high parallelism and throughput, synergistically combined with single-transporter resolution.

Configurable Integration of On‐Chip Quantum Dot Lasers and Subwavelength Plasmonic Waveguides

The integration of on-chip dielectric lasers and subwavelength plasmonic waveguides has attracted enormous attention because of the combination of both the advantages of the high performances of the small dielectric lasers and the subwavelength plasmonic waveguides. However, the configurable integration is still a challenge owing to the complexity of the hybrid structures and the damageability of the gain media in the multistep micro/nanofabrications. By employing the dark-field optical imaging technique with a position uncertainty of about 21 nm and combining the high-resolution electron beam lithography, the small colloidal quantum dot (CQD) lasers without any damages are accurately aligned with the silver nanowires. As a result, the integration of the CQD lasers and the silver nanowires can be flexibly configured on chips. In the experiment, the tangential coupling, radial coupling, and complex coupling between the high-performance CQD lasers and the subwavelength silver nanowires are demonstrated. Because of the subwavelength field confinements of the silver nanowires, the deep-subwavelength coherent sources (multimode, one-color single-mode, or two-color single-mode) with a mode area of only 0.008λ2 are output from these hybrid structures. This configurable on-chip integration with high flexibility and controllability will greatly facilitate the developments of the complex functional hybrid photonic-plasmonic circuits.

Electron beam induced changes in optical properties of glassy As35S65 chalcogenide thin films studied by imaging ellipsometry

Spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry was used to study 50 μm × 50 μm squares recorded into glassy As35S65 thin film by electron beam with different exposure doses. Optical constants (refractive index n and extinction coefficient k) of electron exposed areas were determined from imaging ellipsometric data recorded over a spectral range 390–800 nm. Complex dielectric permittivity of each of electron exposed square (glassy As35S65 with different electron exposure dose) was parametrized by a Tauc-Lorentz oscillator. Gradient optical model with the refractive index changing linearly within the layer thickness was used.Evaluation of parameters of Tauc-Lorentz oscillator revealed decrease of energy bandgap, increase of the refractive index in whole recorded spectra (more pronounced at the top of the film) and increase of extinction coefficient in the part of spectra where the material absorbs with the increasing electron exposure dose used for exposure of the squares.The decrease in local disorder with increasing electron exposure dose is quantified from the short wavelength absorption edge onset using a Mott-Davis model. The dependence of the parameters of Wemple-DiDomenico model for the transparent part of the optical constants spectra on electron exposure dose is shown.Thin film with recorded image was subsequently etched in amine based solution in aprotic solvent. While native film was fully etched off the remaining height of the exposed areas is increasing with the increasing electron exposure dose used.Knowledge of the changes of optical properties and etching rates induced by electron beam of different exposure doses can be used for fabricating of optical elements by high resolution electron beam lithography.

Design, fabrication and characterization of Computer Generated Holograms for anti-counterfeiting applications using OAM beams as light decoders

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication and optical characterization of computer-generated holograms (CGH) encoding information for light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). Through the use of a numerical code, based on an iterative Fourier transform algorithm, a phase-only diffractive optical element (PO-DOE) specifically designed for OAM illumination has been computed, fabricated and tested. In order to shape the incident beam into a helicoidal phase profile and generate light carrying phase singularities, a method based on transmission through high-order spiral phase plates (SPPs) has been used. The phase pattern of the designed holographic DOEs has been fabricated using high-resolution Electron-Beam Lithography (EBL) over glass substrates coated with a positive photoresist layer (polymethylmethacrylate). To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first attempt, in a comprehensive work, to design, fabricate and characterize computer-generated holograms encoding information for structured light carrying OAM and phase singularities. These optical devices appear promising as high-security optical elements for anti-counterfeiting applications.