Nanophotonics

Nanophotonics

Fabrication processes for nanophotonics based on electron beam lithography use very precise etching techniques with the possible to leverage the full suite of CMOS process to realised advanced multilayer nanophotonic devices

Category:

Description

Fabrication processes for nano-photonics

The CAPPA nanophotonics group has developed a range of high-performance fabrication processes for nanophotonic devices. The processes are based on electron beam lithography (both ELIONIX and RAITH systems available) and use very precise etching techniques to transfer the patterns from the resist into material with high fidelity. Most of work uses CMOS compatible materials and wafers scale fabrication but not exclusively so. Multi-layer devices can be made, for example patterned Silicon Nitride or polymer above silicon nanostructures. Additionally, using the Silicon Fab facilities pn junctions may be incorporated to realise complex and advanced devices [DOI: 10.1364/OE.27.011312].

Examples of our work include two dimensional silicon photonic crystals, one dimensional silicon nitride photonic crystals, silicon and silicon nitride meta surfaces.

Ascent+ facility
Tyndall

Platform Technologies

  • Advanced Integration

Key Enabling Capability

  • Processing: Nanophotonics

Case Studies
As part of ASCENT we developed a fabrication process for amorphous silicon on pyrex for a device designed by the Samara Aerospace University (Russian Federation). The insulating substrate was important for the optical designed but posed some interested challenges which we overcame. This fabrication process enables the creation of an important family of metasurface devices. The resulting article is currently under review.

Publications
[DOI: 10.1364/OE.27.011312]

Additional information

Key Enabling Capability

Processing

Platform Technology

Advanced Integration

Facility

Tyndall