Reactive ion etching of waveguide structures in diamond

Abstract

Waveguide structures were fabricated in both nanocrystalline CVD diamond (NCD) and HPHT type 1b single crystal diamond using photolithography and reactive ion etching. The combination of these techniques allows the patterning of many long photonic structures simultaneously, making it easily scalable. Emphasis has been placed on reducing sidewall roughness to prevent loss due to scattering. In single crystal diamond a peak-to-peak roughness of approximately 10 nm (estimated from SEM images) was achieved for the majority of the structure sidewall. © 2008 Elsevier B.V.