Micromachining of Inorganic Materials using Laser Plasma Soft X-Rays

Abstract

We have investigated nanomachining of inorganic materials using laser plasma soft X-rays. The soft X-ray was generated by irradiating Ta targets with pulsed Nd:YAG laser light. The laser plasma soft X-rays were focused using an ellipsoidal mirror, which is designed so as to focus soft X-rays at around 10 nm efficiently. The focused soft X-rays were incident to the surfaces of inorganic materials such as silica glass, LiF, CaF₂ and LiNbO₃. It is found that these materials are ablated by soft X-ray irradiation. In particular, silica glass can be ablated at rates of 0.2-150 nm/shot, which can be controlled by the intensity of soft X-rays. It is remarkable that silica can be ablated smoothly with a roughness of 1 nm after 10 shots of soft X-ray irradiation at a rate of 50 nm/shot. In order to demonstrate nanomachining of silica glass, we used contact masks on top of silica glass plates fabricated by electron beam lithography technique. The silica glass plates were irradiated with laser plasma soft X-rays through the windows of the contact masks. We found that nanofabrication of trenches with a width of 70 nm are performed clearly.