The effects of plasma exposure and vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) irradiation on photopatternable low-k (PPLK) dielectric materials are investigated. In order to examine these effects, current-voltage measurements were made on PPLK materials before and after exposure to a variety of inert plasma-exposure conditions. In order to examine the effects of photon irradiation alone, PPLK samples were also exposed to monochromatic synchrotron radiation with 10 eV photon energy. It was found that plasma exposure causes significant degradation in electrical characteristics, resulting in increased leakage-currents and decreased breakdown voltage. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements also show appreciable carbon loss near the sample surface after plasma exposure. Conversely, VUV exposure was found to increase breakdown voltage and reduce leakage-current magnitudes.
Plasma-induced damage to low-k dielectric materials can be quantified by separation of the effects of charged-particle bombardment, photon bombardment, and gas-radical flux. For ion and photon bombardment, the spatial location and extent of the damage can be determined. Damage effects from radical flux will be shown to be small. Both SiCOH and photo-programmable low-k (PPLK) dielectrics will be discussed.
We present the results of an experimental investigation of polystyrene’s suitability as a dielectric material for designing narrowband, infrared metasurface-based absorbers. Our study included characterization of processing parameters of polystyrene films, such as surface roughness and film thickness, which are critical for device fabrication, and the dielectric properties, which we measured, using spectroscopic ellipsometry. Our results confirm that thin film polystyrene is a relatively low-loss dielectric material at long-wave infrared (LWIR) frequencies. Subsequently, this material was used as the dielectric substrate of a thin, narrowband, metasurface-based absorber at LWIR frequencies. The fabricated narrowband absorber demonstrates excellent performance in the LWIR band with absorptivity as high as 96% and a full-width-at-half-maximum bandwidth of 0.502μm or 4.87%.
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