Formation of Nanoscale Structures of Silicon Photonics and Optoelectronics by Plasma Chemical Etching

This article presents experimental studies of the effect of plasma chemical etching parameters on the geometric parameters of silicon structures. In particular, the regularities of the effect of the duration of the substrate surface treatment in fluorinated plasma on the roughness of the resulting structure and the height of the etched area were considered. The effect of the jet gas flow on these parameters was also studied. The surface morphology was analyzed using atomic force microscopy. Experimental studies have shown that an increase in the plasma treatment time led to an increase in structures, but the mean square roughness index also increased. An increase in the flow of fluorinated gas also led to an increase in the roughness and height of the etched structure.