ICP polishing of silicon for high-quality optical resonators on a chip

Miniature concave hollows, made by wet etching silicon through a circular mask, can be used as mirror substrates for building optical micro-cavities on a chip. In this paper, we investigate how inductively coupled plasma (ICP) polishing improves both shape and roughness of the mirror substrates. We...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of micromechanics and microengineering 2012-12, Vol.22 (12), p.125011-6
Main Authors: Laliotis, A, Trupke, M, Cotter, J P, Lewis, G, Kraft, M, Hinds, E A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chips
Construction
Electrical & electronics engineering
Engineering Sciences
Engineering, computing & technology
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Inductively coupled plasma
Ingénierie électrique & électronique
Ingénierie, informatique & technologie
Optical elements, devices, and systems
Optical resonators
Optics
Photonic
Physics
Polishing
Roughness
Silicon substrates
White light
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Summary:Miniature concave hollows, made by wet etching silicon through a circular mask, can be used as mirror substrates for building optical micro-cavities on a chip. In this paper, we investigate how inductively coupled plasma (ICP) polishing improves both shape and roughness of the mirror substrates. We characterize the evolution of the surfaces during the ICP polishing using white-light optical profilometry and atomic force microscopy. A surface roughness of 1 nm is reached, which reduces to 0.5 nm after coating with a high reflectivity dielectric. With such smooth mirrors, the optical cavity finesse is now limited by the shape of the underlying mirror.
ISSN:0960-1317
1361-6439
DOI:10.1088/0960-1317/22/12/125011