Fine embossing of chalcogenide glasses: First time submicron definition of surface embossed features

Fine micro- and nano-structures were fabricated in the surface of chalcogenide glasses by hot embossing. A Perkin Elmer Thermomechanical Analyser (TMA 7) and an in-house designed and built vacuum pressing rig were employed for embossing and the process parameters of embossing were optimised empirically. The moulds used were a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer presenting 300 nm–2 μm scale features and a silicon wafer containing 1–10 μm wide and ∼10 mm long channels. We report typical results of surface embossing four samples of bulk Ge15As15Se17Te53 glasses. The applied pressure ranged from ∼5 to 500 kPa and the temperature was set to be 60–70 °C higher than the glass transition temperature (Tg), as measured by differential thermal analysis. With the increase of pressure, and use of a vacuum environment, the quality of embossing structure has been improved. Under the optimum pressing conditions, 300 nm feature scale structures were successfully replicated from the mould opening the possibility of using hot embossing to fabricate nano-photonic devices. Due to its relative simplicity, hot embossing offers the potential to produce photonic integrated circuits and components based on novel inorganic compound glasses at low-cost, high-volume, and for a wide wavelength range.