Mode-splitting of a non-polarizing guided mode resonance filter by

substrate overetching effect

Muhammad Rizwan Saleem1,2,*, Seppo Honkanen1, and Jari Turunen1
1
University of Eastern Finland, Institute of Photonics, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101, Joensuu, Finland
2
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), School of Chemical and Materials
Engineering (SCME), Sector H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan
*Corresponding author: rizwan.saleem@uef.fi; Rizwanphy@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
We investigate substrate overetch effect on resonance properties of sub-wavelength titanium oxide (TiO2) Guided Mode
Resonance Filters (TiO2-GMRFs). The TiO2-GMRF is designed and fabricated to possess a non-polarizing behavior,
which is strongly dependent on substrate (fused silica) overetch depth. For non-polarizing gratings at resonance, TE- and
TM-modes have the same propagation constants. However, an overetch substrate effect results in splitting of the
degenerate modes, which is studied theoretically and experimentally. The TiO2-SiO2 GMRFs are designed by Fourier
Modal method (FMM) based on the rigorous calculation of electromagnetic diffraction theory at a designed wavelength
of 850 nm. The TiO2-SiO2 gratings are fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Electron Beam Lithography
(EBL), and Reactive Ion Etching (RIE), and they are subsequently characterized structurally by Scanning Electron
Microscopy (SEM) and optically by a spectroscopic ellipsometer. Several grating samples are fabricated by gradually
increasing the overetch depth into fused silica and measuring the extent of TE- and TM-mode-splitting. A close
agreement between the calculated and experimentally measured resonance wavelength spectral shift is found to describe
the mode splitting of non-polarizing gratings.
Diffraction gratings, Atomic Layer Deposition, Non-polarizing gratings, Optical materials, Nano-optical devices.

1. INTRODUCTION
Guided mode resonance filters (GMRFs) are narrow-band optical filters that have attracted much attention in the last two
decades. Owing to the corrugative profile and the nature of a diffractive structure, the generated waveguide modes are
leaky due to the complex propagation constant [1]. These leaky waveguide modes are coupled with diffraction orders
propagating at different angles. As a result, the incident wave couples to the leaky waveguide modes of the grating [2].
In the excited waveguide mode (at resonance), the reflected and transmitted waves are composed of mainly two coherent
components: the direct reflection/transmission, so called the Fresnel reflection/transmission from the corrugated profile,
and the diffracted coupled wave of the waveguide of the grating. The two waves combine and result in an interference
that depends on their relative phase in the vicinity of the resonance regime. The relative phase between the two waves
can be varied from 0–π, which means that in transmission gratings destructive interference occurs and a narrow spectral
reflection is obtained by the resonant gratings [3]. A desired resonant wavelength can be chosen with an appropriate
choice of grating design parameters, including grating dimensions and the refractive indices of the materials as well as
surrounding regions [4].
TiO2 material has been extensively used as an optical material for various photonic applications owing to its high
refractive index and transparency in the visible and infrared regions [5]. The variations in the thickness of the waveguide
play a significant role, which may result in a change of the nature of the waveguide modes due to generation of
evanescent modes. To take into account all these aspects, TiO2 GMRFs are fabricated by the Atomic Layer Deposition
(ALD) technique to demonstrate a precise and uniform thickness control of waveguide gratings [6]. The overall

Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics VII, edited by Georg von Freymann,
Winston V. Schoenfeld, Raymond C. Rumpf, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8974, 897417 · © 2014 SPIE
CCC code: 0277-786X/14/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.2038116

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 fabrication process includes several steps; however, an important step in the fabrication of the sub-wavelength GMRF
structures is the reactive ion etching (RIE) or the inductively coupled plasma etching by using various etchants. Some
research groups have already reported that thin dielectric films prepared by ALD inherently possess high hardness and
chemical inertness, which enable them to be used as etching masks [7]. Therefore, the selection of the etchant with high
etch selectivity of TiO2 over the mask (a resist or a metal such as Cr) is an important step for the fabrication of TiO2
GMRFs. In general, the high etch selectivity of TiO2 over the mask can also influence the substrate layer underneath by
etching it. The subsequent etching of the underlying fused silica substrate (SiO2) is undesired, as it can change the
propagation constants of the TE (field is parallel to the grating lines) and TM (field is perpendicular to the grating lines)
modes of the waveguide grating. In this study, different overetch depths of the fused silica substrate (SiO2) are
investigated, theoretically and experimentally, by varying the etching times and depths of the etchant in TiO2 waveguide
gratings. The schematics of TiO2 waveguide gratings etched to and into the substrate surface are shown in Figs. 1(a) and
1(b). The shift in the resonant wavelength position for both TE- and TM-modes under overetched profile is studied with
an amorphous phase of the TiO2 films grown by ALD method. The paper is organized as follows: first the design of
mode-splitting of a non-polarizing grating in terms of overetched depth in fused silica substrate is described in Section 2.
In Section 3, all experimental details of fabrication are presented. The experimental results relating to the effect of mode-
splitting on substrate overetching to different depths are discussed in Section 4. Finally, the conclusions are presented in
Section 5.

TiO2 w
Ioveretched
region

SiOz ns
Figure 1. TiO2 waveguide grating: (a) etched to the surface of SiO2 substrate with grating groove height hc, (b) overetched into
the SiO2 substrate to depth hs.

2. DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF GMRFs

The schematic of an ideal GMRF under investigation is shown in Fig. 1. Here we consider a rectangular profile TiO2
grating with thickness t on SiO2 substrate. The grating height hc is equal to the TiO2 thickness t. Incident light is coming
from air with a refractive index na = 1 while the refractive indices of the amorphous TiO2 and SiO2 are nc = 2.32, and ns =
1.45, respectively. A linearly plane polarized light incident on the grating at an angle θi with the normal to the grating
and reflected light is detected at an angle θo. The binary gratings are designed at a peak resonance wavelength of λr = 850
nm at normal incidence by performing rigorous calculations and simulations using Fourier Modal Method (FMM) [8].
Figures 2a and 2b show the non-polarizing gratings after adjusting gratings’ structural parameters, for example, structure
linewidth and grating groove height so that dispersion curves for both TE- and TM-modes coincide. At this coincidence
point the propagation constants of the leaky excited guided modes are the same for both polarizations resulting in

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 simultaneous mode excitation. One possible set of experimentally realizable grating structural parameters are: period d =
540 nm, linewidth w = 400 nm, fill factor = ff = w/d = 0.74, ridge height hc = t = 200 nm, overetch height hs = 0–160 nm,
and λr = 850 nm at normal incidence. Figure 3 shows the specular transmittance/reflectance at designed wavelength λr =
850 nm, using optimized grating parameters (see figure 2), which results in simultaneous excitation of TE- and TM-
modes. Here all numerical calculations are performed to demonstrate sub-wavelength grating structures (d < λ) to allow
only zeroth order diffraction. The central peak resonance wavelength has a relation with grating period d, which can be
used to tune resonance at any desired wavelength after selecting grating period d < λr/nsub, where nsub is refractive index
of SiO2 substrate.
210 210
-t!
0.9
205

0.8
.r200
0.7

ó 195

iI
0.6
C7
0.5
1990
395 400 405 410 395 400 405 410
Linewidth w [nm] Linewidth w [nm]
Figure 2. Simulated specular reflectance of waveguide gratings at optimized grating parameters linewidth w and grating groove
height hc for: (a) TE-mode (b) TM-mode.

Q
1
ii ,
r
il
; ic
i ,,,...,......,..,.._
z I
ce ,..0'
.0*
'S.
.\ I
I
t
t 0.8 ...,""
,.. ,..'
,...'
....,

-V ;I
I
I-,
1-
I
=a.)

a.)
%

%
I
r
1

I
i
0.6 - --TE Reflectance ! -
TM Reflectance
c..)
- TE Transmittance i1
ca 0.4 I
''''' TM Transmittancee / -
,,
,..

1-4 e,
e....,
_
...-_

e ,
-
--..
.....
cnE 0.2 -6,
....... ,,..... ....

,
4,91.
ca
.......... h. ....

E'l 0 ' ... ... 1 .. I ... ....... . .. ..... .... . 1 .... ... : . ....... , , i

750 800 850 900

Wavelength A [nm]
Figure 3. Specular transmittance/reflectance of non-polarizing waveguide gratings with optimized grating parameters at
central resonance wavelength 850 nm.

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 3. FABRICATION OF WAVEGUIDE GRATING STRUCTURES
For the fabrication of sub-wavelength grating structures we used atomic layer deposition (ALD), electron beam
lithography (EBL), and reactive ion etching (RIE) techniques. Fused silica substrates with 25 mm diameter and 0.5 mm
thickness were cleaned with isopropanol with dry nitrogen blow, on which thin amorphous TiO2 films of thicknesses ~
200 nm were deposited by ALD technique with the Beneq TFS 200-152 reactor. TiCl4 and H2O were used as ALD
precursor materials to yield low temperature growth at 120 °C. Nitrogen was used as a purging and carrier gas for each
precursor material. During a cycle, the flow rate of TiCl4 was maintained at 200 SCCM for 150 ms followed by purging
for 750 ms and a flow rate of 300 SCCM for H2O for 150 ms followed by purging for 1 s. TiO2 films were grown at a
rate of 0.65 Å per cycle which was measured by WVASE ellipsometry and Dektak 150 stylus surface profilometer from
Veeco Metrology. The TiO2 coated films were further coated by a 30 nm thin layer of Cr material by electron beam
evaporation at 1.5 × 10-6 mbar with 2 Å/s deposition rate by Leybold L560 vacuum evaporator. A thin layer of a positive
electron beam resist ZEP 7000 22 was spin coated on Cr film after adjusting the spinning speed at 2900 rpm for 1 min by
Headway spinner PWM101D from Headway Research Ltd. A soft baking was carried out at 180 °C for 180 s on a hot
plate. A resist pattering was performed by a direct electron beam writer EBPG5000+ESHR from Vistec Lithography on
an exposed area of 7 × 7 mm2 at 200 µC/cm2 dose. The subsequent development process was followed by RIE. The Cr
mask was dry etched at a low pressure process using Cl2, O2 as etching gases and inductively coupled plasma using
Plasmalab 100 from Oxford Plasma Technology. After Cr etching the resist layer was removed by O2 plasma using
March CS-1701 from Microtech-Chemitech AB. The O2 plasma etching removes resist layer and consequent ashes and
ensures the sample cleanliness for the subsequent TiO2 etching. The TiO2 etching was performed using SF6 and Ar
plasma by altering the etching time using Plasmalab 80 from Oxford Plasma Technology. Following TiO2 etching, the
sample was again cleaned by O2 plasma for subsequent wet etching. Finally, the removal of complete Cr layer was
obtained through wet etching with a mixture of ammonium cerium (IV) nitrate, acetic acid, rinsing with deionized water
and drying with nitrogen blow [5].
860 -i860 1

"<i 850 0.8 '"".4850 0.8

0
840 0.6 0.6
>
830 830
a;
0.4 0.4
U
U U
ce 820 820
0.2 q 0.2
O
81% 8100
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Overetch depth he [nmi Overetch depth hs [nm]
Figure 4. Simulated specular reflectance depicting variation in resonance wavelength with the overetch depth into fused silica
substrate for: (a) TE-mode (b) TM-mode.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Theoretically simulated results
Figures 2a and 2b show the simulation results of an ideal non-polarizing waveguide grating, the TiO2 surface of which is
etched to the level of SiO2 perfectly (i.e., hs = 0). The simulated plots show the specular reflectance in terms of the
structure linewidth w and groove height hc. One can see the degeneracy of the TE- and TM-modes without splitting at hs
= 0. In this Section we describe the splitting of TE- and TM-modes of the proposed waveguide grating by calculating and

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 simulating the influence of an overetch depth into fused silica substrate. Figures 4a and 4b show the simulation results in
terms of the shift in resonance wavelength with the increase in overetch depth into fused silica substrate for TE- and TM-
modes, respectively. The calculated shift in specular reflectance/transmittance is larger for the TE-mode, with a parabolic
behavior, than for the TM-mode having a linear response. The shift in resonance wavelength is also calculated at various
overetch depths in order to determine the out-coupling of the localized fields for both the TE- and TM-modes as shown
in Fig. 5.

855
#TE- Calculated
F
tTM- Calculated
850
tuo
g
a)

845

co
840
g
0
cn

. 835

83 p
20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Overetch depth hs [nm]
Figure 5. Calculated shift in resonance wavelength of TE- and TM-localized fields with the overetch depth into fused silica
substrate.
4.2 Experimentally measured results
Figure 6 shows spectral measurement of specular reflectance/transmittance of a non-polarizing dielectric
waveguide grating. The resonance wavelengths for both the TE- and TM-modes show peak excitation around 850 nm as
was calculated in Fig. 3. The experimentally measured shift in the resonance wavelength for the grating with a
subsequent etching time of 30 s is shown in Fig. 7 as a plot of λr as a function of hs. The measured spectral peak shift is
in complete agreement with the theoretically calculated one in Fig. 5 for both modes with a parabolic fit for the TE-mode
and a linear fit for TM-mode. The experimental shift in TE-mode is about 3 times more than that of theoretically
calculated. The difference in shifts might be due to corrugated surface variations compared to an ideal profile shown in
Fig. 1. An intricate fabrication process results in slanted sidewalls instead of being an ideal one. Such angular
irregularities in the sidewalls may affect the grating linewidth and propagation constant of the leaky excited modes by
varying the effective index of the structure. Similarly, the measured shift in TM-mode is more than twice the calculated
value. Figure 8 shows the SEM images of the TiO2 grating structures etched to and into the fused silica substrate at
different depths.

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 1

,
a)

-i-
U

:::«
1S.

t/!
V-

t ;r -.-..TM Transmittance
t 1
- TM Reflectance
---TE Transmittance
- TE Reflectance

50 800 850 900 950

Wavelength?, [nm]
Figure 6. Specular reflectance/transmittance of a non-polarizing dielectric waveguide grating.

g
860

850-i \
-

840 =
-

OZ3 830= = 0.00188*xZ - 0.617*h + 846 s

=

8 820i
-

2 810=
TE -Experimental
800 ---TE parabolic fit
tTM Experimental
7) 790 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Overetch depth hs [nm]
Figure 7. Measured shift in resonance wavelength λr as a function of overetch depth hs into fused silica substrate.

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 11111111111
(e)
400 nm
400 nm

Figure 8. SEM images of sub-wavelength dielectric TiO2-SiO2 grating structures etched and overetched to and into SiO2 substrate
at different depths: (a) & (b) etched to the surface of SiO2, (c) overetched to 39 nm into SiO2, (d) overetched to 73 nm into SiO2,
(e) overetched to 97 nm into SiO2, and (f) overetched to 128 nm into SiO2.

5. Conclusion
Design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of mode-splitting of sub-wavelength non-polarizing dielectric
(TiO2) gratings are demonstrated. The gratings are fabricated by EBL, ALD, and RIE using high index amorphous TiO2
material on fused silica substrate. The mode-splitting is investigated experimentally by a subsequent increase in the RIE
time with equal intervals, while maintaining the rest of the parameters constant. An excellent agreement between the
theoretical simulations and experimental measurements of the spectral shifts in resonance wavelengths is found on
overetching the fused silica substrate. The spectral shift obeys a parabolic fit for the TE and a linear fit for the TM-mode.
The magnitudes of the experimentally measured spectral shifts are ~ 2–3 times more than those calculated theoretically,
which might be due to a variation in grating profile.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the financial support from the Strategic Funding Initiative TAILOR of the University of Eastern
Finland, and the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan.

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