Fabrication of relief gratings on high photosensitive SiO2/ZrO2 gel film by UV exposure

SiO2/ZrO2 gel films were derived from Zr-butoxide modified chemically with P-diketones and then mixed with Tetraethyl orthosilicate via Sol-Gel process. The obtained gel films showed an absorption band, in characteristic of the pi-pi* transition of chelate ring at around 334 nm, and its refractive index was changed from 1.463 similar to 1.647. The Si-O-Zr, Zr-O bands were detected by FTIR. The result indicated that SiO2 and ZrO2 integrated uniformly in the films on micro molecule magnitude. The negative tone gel films were irradiated with high pressure mercury lamp through mask and then leached in ethyl alcohol. The above process gave uniform surface-relief gratings of periods at 2.0 mu m. The present study had proved that the photosensitive gel films were versatile for the fabrication of micro optical devices.