Nanometer-scale thickness control of amorphous silicon using isotropic wet-etching and low loss wire waveguide fabrication with the etched material

Wet-etching with an organic alkaline solution was monitored in situ in semi-real time by optical reflection spectroscopy to achieve high resolution thickness control of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) film for use in wire waveguides. Isotropic etching resulting from the intrinsic isotropic structure of a-Si:H led to uniform etching with a surface roughness of <1 nm. A moderate etching rate enabled accurate endpoint detection with a resolution of ≤1 nm at room temperature. A wire waveguide made of the etched a-Si:H film had a low propagation loss of 1.2 dB/cm, which was almost equivalent to that of an unetched one.