Ablation of silica glass induced by laser plasma soft X-ray irradiation

Silica glass can be ablated using focused laser plasma soft X-rays. The ablation technique enables us to fabricate trenches with a width as narrow as 50 nm. In the present paper, we have investigated the nano-ablation process. The soft X-ray irradiation causes a silica surface broken into almost atomic species. Ionic species have kinetic energies higher than that gained by heating to the boiling point. We measured the ablation depth as a function of the soft X-ray fluence. The depth analysis revealed that soft X-rays are absorbed in a silica surface with an effective absorption depth of 10 nm. The result indicates that the energy density of the soft X-rays per unit volume at the threshold fluence is comparable to that required for breaking silica glass into atomic species. Further, the results suggest that ablation occurs before diffusion of absorbed energy into the surrounding region. In addition to energy absorption, repulsive forces between ionic species may cause ablation of the silica surface by soft X-ray irradiation. These properties of soft X-ray ablation may make possible the nano-ablation of silica glass. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(9): 30–35, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10354