Effect of Surface Roughness on the Acid Etching of Amorphous Silica

The effect of the root-mean-square (rms) roughness on the acid etching of roughened amorphous silica was studied as a function of time using atomic force microscopy and laser light scattering. The initial size and distribution of micrometer-sized surface flaws are shown to influence the time evolution of the etching by hydrofluoric acid. The increase in the optical transparency of the samples is linked to the large increases in the correlation lengths of the sample surfaces, an effect which counteracts the accompanying rise in the rms roughness.

[1]  D. W. Readey,et al.  Dissolution Kinetics of Crystalline and Amorphous Silica in Hydrofluoric‐Hydrochloric Acid Mixtures , 1987 .

[2]  A. A. Griffith.  The Phenomena of Rupture and Flow in Solids , 1921 .

[3]  G. Spierings.  Compositional effects in the dissolution of multicomponent silicate glasses in aqueous HF solutions , 1991 .

[4]  A. Evans,et al.  Elastic/Plastic Indentation Damage in Ceramics: The Lateral Crack System , 1982 .

[5]  E. W. Stryland,et al.  Sensitive Measurement of Optical Nonlinearities Using a Single Beam Special 30th Anniversary Feature , 1990 .

[6]  B. Lawn,et al.  A model for the wear of brittle solids under fixed abrasive conditions , 1975 .

[7]  David J. Monk,et al.  Determination of the Etching Kinetics for the Hydrofluoric Acid/Silicon Dioxide System , 1993 .

[8]  Depolarization and backscatter enhancement in light scattering from random rough surfaces: comparison of full-wave theory with experiment , 1989 .

[9]  Richard F. Haglund,et al.  Changes in the surface morphology of glass due to abrasion and the deposition of sol—gel thin films , 1995 .

[10]  Antoine Llebaria,et al.  Autocovariance functions for polished optical surfaces , 1983 .

[11]  A. Llebaria,et al.  Roughness spectrum and surface plasmons for surfaces of silver, copper, gold, and magnesium deposits , 1983 .

[12]  W. K. Burton,et al.  The growth of crystals and the equilibrium structure of their surfaces , 1951, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[13]  Hakan H. Yuce,et al.  Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Optical Fiber Corrosion: Surface Roughness Contribution to Zero-Stress Aging , 1991 .

[14]  Charles R. Kurkjian,et al.  Chemically Corroded Pristine Silica Fibers: Blunt or Sharp Flaws? , 1993 .

[15]  R. Howe.  Surface micromachining for microsensors and microactuators , 1988 .

[16]  Considerations on the Kinetics and the Mechanism of the Dissolution of Metal Oxides in Acidic Solutions , 1976 .

[17]  J. A. Pask,et al.  Reaction of Glasses with Hydrofluoric Acid Solution , 1982 .

[18]  Antoine Llebaria,et al.  Autoregressive process for characterizing statistically rough surfaces , 1993 .

[19]  Ari T. Friberg,et al.  Experimental study of enhanced backscattering from one- and two-dimensional random rough surfaces , 1990 .

[20]  K. A. O'Donnell,et al.  Observation of depolarization and backscattering enhancement in light scattering from gaussian random surfaces , 1987 .

[21]  Investigations on the Rate of Dissolution of Metal Oxides in Acidic Solutions with Additions of Redox Couples and Complexing Agents , 1976 .