感应耦合等离子体(ICP)刻蚀技术是一种新的干法刻蚀技术,具有刻蚀速率高和各向异性刻蚀等优点,并且能够独立控制等离子体密度和自偏置电压。然而,在利用这种技术进行刻蚀的过程中,经常会发生聚合物的沉积,从而阻碍了刻蚀过程的继续。我们报道了在熔融石英表面刻蚀光栅时不产生聚合物沉积的技术,给出了优化参数。所制作的熔融石英普通光栅和600线/mm的高密度光栅的表面很干净,没有聚合物沉积。光栅衍射效率的实际测量值和预期的理论值吻合得很好。最后还研究了ICP技术的刻蚀速度,刻蚀均匀性和过程可重复性等参数。

Inductively Coupled Plasma technology is a new dry etching technology. It has the merits of high etching rate, anisotropic etching, self-contronable plasma density at low pressure and self-biased voltage. However, in the etching process, polymer deposition that hinders the etching process always takes place. We report an optimized process for the etching of a surface-relief grating into fused silica without polymer deposition. Both of the fabricated fused silica grating and the high-density grating have very clean surfaces, and no polymer deposition has been found on it. Experimental results of the diffraction of the fabricated gratings match well with the theoretical results. Finally, we report the etching rate, uniformity and repeatability of ICP technology for fabrication of microoptical elements.