Preseeded Optical Scatterers as a Template for Enhancing Order in Inorganic Phototropic Growth

Abstract

Lithographically patterned substrates were used as templates of optical scatterers that seeded the inorganic phototropic growth of Se–Te. Relative to films grown on nominally featureless substrates, films grown on substrates having patterned optical scatterers demonstrated much improved Se–Te pattern fidelities and a narrower distribution of film pattern spatial periods, as quantified by Fourier spectrum analysis. Full-wave electromagnetic modeling and Monte Carlo simulations of Se–Te film growth on substrates with patterned optical scatterers were in good agreement with the patterns observed experimentally. Additional simulations were performed to investigate the limits to pattern period confinement. Simulations revealed that films deposited onto templated substrates can exhibit pattern periods as low as ∼80% and as high as ∼160% of the pattern period observed for films deposited on nontemplated substrates.