Controlling thermal-induced dewetting of As20Se80 thin films for integrated photonics applications

As the use of photonics circuits expands, the optical quality and performance of integrated components in the microscale become a major concern. Aiming to improve the performance while reducing the time processing, new microfabrication approaches are being investigated. The dewetting of glassy thin films have been recently proposed as an alternative for nano and microfabrication of chalcogenide optical components. Besides being the best materials for light transmission in the infrared region, chalcogenide glasses possess a flexible molecular structure that allows using a cheap and simple molding process. Here we investigate the thermal-induced dewetting of chalcogenide As20Se80 thin films, by studying the influence of temperature, atmosphere, and heating rate on the formation of self-assembled microstructures. We found that thin films between 150 and 700 nm dewet via structural relaxation, similarly to liquid agglomeration, and produce solid microstructures with the same composition and molecular structure as the initial film. By controlling the glass viscosity and the kinetics of the nucleation process it was possible to adjust the distribution and size of glassy microstructures. Additionally, we combine the dewetting process with standard photolithography and by avoiding the capillary instabilities, we are capable to obtain waveguides with the smooth and symmetric surfaces required for optical applications in the microscale size. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement.