Photo-Chemical Etching on Silicon-Carbide by Using Krf Excimer Laser and Xe2* Excimer Lamp

Abstract

ABSTRACTSilicon-carbide (SiC) has excellent refractivity in the range of soft X-ray and is well-used as a diffraction grating for Synchrotron-radiation (SR) light. This material has a high melting point, hardness and chemical stability. Therefore, etching of the material by chemical or physical methods is very difficult. We reported a photo-chemical etching method in which a SiC surface is placed in NF3 gas atmosphere and irradiated by the Xe2* excimer lamp light parallelly and the grating patterned KrF laser light of 248nm perpendicularly on the sample surface. The Xe2* excimer lamp light are employed for NF3 gas decomposition, and KrF laser light used for excitation on the sample surface. This photochemical etching reaction are detected by XPS, QMS and FTIR measurements. This method achieved 0.18 Å/shot in etching efficiency, and became maximum approximately 7 times as high as ArF laser light for photodecomposition.