• Optics and Precision Engineering
  • Vol. 31, Issue 1, 109 (2023)
Pei ZENG1,2, Zhiwen SHU2, Yiqin CHEN2, Huigao DUAN2, and Mengjie ZHENG1,*
Author Affiliations
  • 1Jihua Laboratory, Foshan528000, China
  • 2National Engineering Research Centre for High Efficiency Grinding, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha41008, China
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    DOI: 10.37188/OPE.20233101.0109 Cite this Article
    Pei ZENG, Zhiwen SHU, Yiqin CHEN, Huigao DUAN, Mengjie ZHENG. Rapid fabrication of metallic nanogap structures by shower ion beam etching[J]. Optics and Precision Engineering, 2023, 31(1): 109 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    The use of shower ion beam etching for the "lateral extraction" of multiple diabolo-shaped metallic nanopatterns was proposed, enabling the direct and rapid fabrication of multiple metallic nanogap structures. In a typical process, after the nanostructured resist patterns were defined by electron beam lithography, traditional metal deposition and wet lift-off were performed to transfer the resist pattern to a diabolo-shaped metallic nanostructure. The metallic patterns were then immediately trimmed using shower ion beam etching. The gap distance between two isolated nano-antennas could be narrowed to less than 10 nm by precisely controlling the etching time. In addition, combined with the hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ)-based negative-resist patterning process, free-standing metallic nanogaps atop HSQ nano-templates were obtained. The morphological evolution of nanostructures during the etching process was characterized. Systematic experiments and numerical simulations were conducted to verify the advantages of suspended metallic nanogap structures for surface-enhanced Raman scattering. The proposed process provides a new means for the one-time formation of multiple ultra-small metallic nanogap structures. It has promising application prospects in the low-cost and high-efficiency preparation of large-area Raman sensing substrates.
    Pei ZENG, Zhiwen SHU, Yiqin CHEN, Huigao DUAN, Mengjie ZHENG. Rapid fabrication of metallic nanogap structures by shower ion beam etching[J]. Optics and Precision Engineering, 2023, 31(1): 109
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