Side-wall roughness in SOI rib waveguides fabricated by inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching

SOI rib waveguides were fabricated with vertical side walls using inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching. The root-mean-square (rms) roughness of the side-wall surface was directly measured by atomic force microscopy. The rms roughness of the side-wall surface obtained by three-mask lithography is 28.73 nm, much higher than that of the one-mask-lithography SOI rib waveguide. The scattering loss induced from side-wall roughness is evaluated using Tien's theory, and is proportional to the square of the side-wall rms roughness. To reduce the rms roughness, hydrogen annealing was used to smooth the side-wall surface obtained by three-mask lithography. After hydrogen annealing, there is a significant drop in the rms roughness of the side-wall surface.