Etching of organic optical materials by photo-material processing using an excimer lamp

A dielectric barrier discharge type Xe excimer lamp has been used for etching of some organic materials which can be widely used for opt-electric applications. Using polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) and polyimidic (PI) resin as samples, they were irradiated at an intensity of 12 mW/cm2. In both cases, etch rates could be varied by changing the species and pressures of gases in the chamber. The maximum etch rates for PMMA and PI were approximately 7 and 10 nm/min, respectively. The etched surface was found to be very smooth compared to the surfaces etched by the ArF excimer laser. Because the excimer lamp produces incoherent radiation, uniform irradiation over a large area without speckling or interference fringe has been obtained. Furthermore, because the peak power of the lamp is significantly lower than that of excimer lasers, effective quantum effects and photochemical effects without thermal effects have been observed. We applied this technique for etching single crystalline organic opt-electric materials such as 1-arginin phosphate monohydrate and 1-histidine tetrafluoroborate.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.