Etching of micro and nano-structures in semiconductor and glass material systems

Modern optoelectronic devices require micro and nano-structures to be etched into a wide range of substrate materials. The ability to plasma etch a wide range of semiconductor and glass materials is required to produce devices that provide technical solutions to challenging optical designs for optoelectronic applications. This paper addresses the etching practices developed primarily for microoptical devices including lenses and gratings. The materials considered are compound semiconductors in the III-V materials group as well as high index of refraction optical glasses. Many of the materials investigated were evaluated for optical data storage applications for future generation devices.