Epitaxial films of piezoelectric a-quartz could enable the fabrication of sensors with unprecedented sensitivity for prospective applications in electronics, biology and medicine. However, the prerequisites are harnessing the crystallization of epitaxial a-quartz and tailoring suitable film microstructures for nanostructuration. Here, we bring new insights into the crystallization of epitaxial a-quartz films on silicon (100) from the devitrification of porous silica and the control of the film microstructures: we show that by increasing the quantity of devitrifying agent (Sr) it is possible to switch from an a-quartz microstructure consisting of a porous flat film to one dominated by larger, fully dense a-quartz crystals. We also found that the film thickness, relative humidity and the nature of the surfactant play an important role in the control of the microstructure and homogeneity of the films. Via a multi-layer deposition method, we have extended the maximum thickness of the a-quartz films from a few hundreds of nm to the mm range. Moreover, we found a convenient method to combine this multilayer approach with soft lithography to pattern silica films while preserving epitaxial crystallization. This improved control over crystallization and the possibility of preparing patterned films of epitaxial a-quartz on Si substrates pave the path to future developments in applications based on electromechanics, optics and optomechanics.
The monolithic integration of sub-micron quartz structures on silicon substrates is a key issue for the future development of telecommunication to the GHz frequencies. Here we report unprecedented large-scale fabrication of ordered arrays of piezoelectric epitaxial quartz nanostructures on silicon substrates by the combination of soft-chemistry and three cost effective lithographic techniques: (i) laser transfer lithography, (ii) soft nanoimprint lithography on Srdoped SiO2 sol-gel thin films and (iii) self-assembled SrCO3 nanoparticles reactive nanomasks. Epitaxial α-quartz nanopillars with different diameters (down to 50 nm) and heights (up to 2000 nm) were obtained for the first time. This work proves the control over the shape, micro-and nano-patterning of quartz thin films while preserving its crystallinity, texture and piezoelectricity. This work opens up the opportunity to fabricate new high frequency resonators and high sensitivity sensors relevant in different fields of application.
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