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Main Authors: Isometsä, Joonas, Bieleviciute, Auguste, Liu, Xiaolong, Vähänissi, Ville, Savin, Hele
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16589
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author Isometsä, Joonas
Bieleviciute, Auguste
Liu, Xiaolong
Vähänissi, Ville
Savin, Hele
author_facet Isometsä, Joonas
Bieleviciute, Auguste
Liu, Xiaolong
Vähänissi, Ville
Savin, Hele
contents Silicon carbide (SiC) is a highly promising material for the rapidly growing UV detection industry due to its visible-blindness, low dark current, and exceptional thermal and chemical stability. Despite these advantages, the performance of state-of-the-art SiC UV detectors remains limited due to high reflectance losses, even with the use of anti-reflection coatings. Here, we develop a reactive ion etching process for nanostructuring SiC to eliminate the reflectance losses. The process is based on consecutive oxidation and etching cycles. Consequently, a reflectance below 0.5% is achieved from deep UV (200 nm) to close to the SiC cut-off (~360 nm). The nanostructures are effective even at large incident angles as the reflectance remains practically unchanged up to 60 degrees. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the process consumes only ~1 um of SiC and is compatible with Al2O3 masking, thereby facilitating straightforward integration into device fabrication. The developed cyclical etching process could also prove useful for SiC etching in general.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_16589
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nanostructuring SiC by sequential plasma oxidation and reactive ion etching
Isometsä, Joonas
Bieleviciute, Auguste
Liu, Xiaolong
Vähänissi, Ville
Savin, Hele
Applied Physics
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a highly promising material for the rapidly growing UV detection industry due to its visible-blindness, low dark current, and exceptional thermal and chemical stability. Despite these advantages, the performance of state-of-the-art SiC UV detectors remains limited due to high reflectance losses, even with the use of anti-reflection coatings. Here, we develop a reactive ion etching process for nanostructuring SiC to eliminate the reflectance losses. The process is based on consecutive oxidation and etching cycles. Consequently, a reflectance below 0.5% is achieved from deep UV (200 nm) to close to the SiC cut-off (~360 nm). The nanostructures are effective even at large incident angles as the reflectance remains practically unchanged up to 60 degrees. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the process consumes only ~1 um of SiC and is compatible with Al2O3 masking, thereby facilitating straightforward integration into device fabrication. The developed cyclical etching process could also prove useful for SiC etching in general.
title Nanostructuring SiC by sequential plasma oxidation and reactive ion etching
topic Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16589