Optimization of periodic column growth in glancing angle deposition for photonic crystal fabrication

• Published in: Nanotechnology 2008-10, Vol.19 (41), p.415203-415203 (7)
• Main Authors: Summers, M A, Brett, M J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/19/41/415203

We investigate the growth of periodically aligned silicon microstructures for the fabrication of square spiral photonic crystals using the glancing angle deposition phi-sweep process. We report the optimization of the phi-sweep offset angle for fabrication of microstructures with more precise geometry. The effects of varying the sweep offset angle of the phi-sweep process are studied for films deposited onto a square lattice array of growth seeds. To represent one growth segment of the phi-sweep process, we fabricate 15 nm silicon thin films using several azimuthal substrate offsets from 0° to 45° at a vapor incidence angle of 85°. We also deposit silicon square spirals on square lattice arrays with the phi-sweep method, using various sweep offset angles from γ = 0° to 45°. We find that using an offset angle of γ = 26.5° optimizes the shadowing geometry, which minimizes anisotropic broadening, producing greater quality photonic crystal structures. From normal incidence reflection spectroscopy, a maximum full width at half-maximum of 273 ± 3 nm and a relative peak width (Δλ/λ) of 16.1 ± 0.1% were found for a sweep offset angle of γ = 26.5°.