Thermal dewetting of Pt thin film: Etch-masks for the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures

Nanometer scale Pt metal islands formed by the dewetting of two-dimensional film on SiO2 dielectric materials during rapid thermal annealing were investigated. For the case of 30 nm thick Pt films, pattern formation and dewetting were initiated at temperatures of >600 °C. Controlling the annealing temperature and time as well as the thickness of the Pt metal film permitted the size and density of Pt islands to be controlled. Furthermore, the islands show good resistance to dry-etching by a CF4-based plasma for dielectric etching, indicating that the metal islands produced by dewetting are suitable for use as an etch-mask in the fabrication of nano-scale structures.