Nanoscale Surface Roughening Using SU-8 Nano Grass as an Etch Mask

SU-8, a photosensitive polymer, was etched with oxygen plasma to create grass-like nanostructures. SU-8 grass can then be used as a transfer mask to plasma etch a surface. This was demonstrated for a silicon dioxide surface using a CF4 plasma. The resulting nano-scale silicon dioxide features were larger than the SU-8 grass but were uniform across the sample surface. This technique is proposed as a way to roughen the surface of materials common in microfabrication.