Metal-assisted chemical etching of silicon, especially in the vapour phase, is a highly promising technique for fabricating nanostructures with high aspect ratios. Here, a nanoscale pattern of x-ray zone plates written by electron beam lithography works as a mould for Pt electroplating on a Au seed layer to realise a nanostructured AuPt bilayer pattern on a silicon substrate. Our approach shows that the silicon etching induced by the electroplated catalyst occurs in a vapour of HF and oxygen, producing nanostructures with feature sizes as small as 10 nm, demonstrating that this catalyst synthesis method is suitable for vapour-based metal assisted chemical etching.

Metal assisted chemical etching is a promising method for fabricating high aspect ratio micro- and nanostructures in silicon. Previous results have suggested that P-type and N-type silicon etches with different degrees of anisotropy, questioning the use of P-type silicon for nanostructures. In this study, we compare processing X-ray zone plate nanostructures in N and P-type silicon through metal assisted chemical etching with a gold catalyst. Fabricated zone plates were cleaved and studied with a focus on resulting verticality, depth and porosity. Results show that for high aspect ratio nanostructures, both N and P-type silicon prove to be viable alternatives exhibiting different etch rates, but similarities regarding porosity and etch direction.

Lift-off processing is a common method of pattern transfer for different nanofabrication applications. With the emergence of chemically amplified and semi-amplified resist systems, the possibilities for pattern definition via electron beam lithography has been widened. We report a reliable and simple lift-off process for dense nanostructured pattern in CSAR62. The pattern is defined in a single layer CSAR62 resist mask for gold nanostructures on silicon. The process offers a slimmed down pathway for pattern definition of dense nanostructures with varied feature size and an up to 10 nm thick gold layer. The resulting patterns from this process have been successfully used in metal assisted chemical etching applications.

X-ray zone plates made from gold are common optical components used in X-ray imaging experiments. These nanostructures are normally fabricated using a combination of electron-beam lithography and gold electroplating with cyanide gold baths. In this study, we present a gold electroplating process in a miniaturized gold-suplphite bath. The miniaturization is enabled by on-chip reference plating areas with well defined sizes, offering a reliable way to control the height of the structures by carefully choosing the plating time at a given current density in accordance with a calibration curve. Fabricated gold zone plates were successfully used in X-ray imaging experiments with synchrotron radiation. Although gold electroplating of nanostructures is a well-established method, details about the actual process are often missing in the literature. Therefore, we think that our detailed descriptions and explanations will be helpful for other researchers that would like to fabricate similar structures.

Electron-beam lithography (EBL) is a relevant technique to the nanoscience community as it enables the production of precise structures at the nanoscale. When writing features in a thick resist layer, dose insufficiency is typically encountered when resolution approaches the focal spot of the electron beam itself. We present a study of this phenomenon, a theory for its understanding and compensation, and a method for the assignment of the correct area dose for writing small features. Dose insufficiency originates from the proximity effect distributing energy in volumes of resist that are larger than intended. Based on a simple interpretation of the spread, a proximity effect correction (PEC) algorithm was established. Implementing this, we could realize high-quality nanostructures with direct-write 50 kV EBL on AR-P 6200 (CSAR 62) resist. The latter translates to quick and inexpensive exposures that offer good compatibility with further processes.

Zone plates are diffractive optics commonly used in X-ray microscopes. Here, we present a wet-chemical approach for fabricating high aspect ratio Pd/Si zone plate optics aimed at the hard X-ray regime. A Si zone plate mold is fabricated via metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) and further metalized with Pd via electroless deposition (ELD). MACE results in vertical Si zones with high aspect ratios. The observed MACE rate with our zone plate design is 700 nm/min. The ELD metallization yields a Pd density of 10.7 g/cm3, a value slightly lower than the theoretical density of 12 g/cm3. Fabricated zone plates have a grid design, 1:1 line-to-space-ratio, 30 nm outermost zone width, and an aspect ratio of 30:1. At 9 keV X-ray energy, the zone plate device shows a first order diffraction efficiency of 1.9%, measured at the MAX IV NanoMAX beamline. With this work, the possibility is opened to fabricate X-ray zone plates with low-cost etching and metallization methods.

Metal-assisted chemical etching is a promising method for fabricating nanostructures with a high aspect ratio. Thelift-off step is however a limiting factor due to process bottle necks and low yield. To bypass the lift-off process, othermethods such as electroplating can be utilized. In this paper, we suggest an electroplated bi-layer catalyst for vapourphase MACE as an alternative to the commonly utilised liftoff process. The samples were etched in vapour, and theresults evaluated through SEM imaging in cross section and tilt.