Microfabrication of Dielectric Multilayer Reflector by Reactive Ion Etching and Characterization of Induced Wafer Damage

A reactive ion etching (RIE) system has been introduced to fabricate a tiny structure of dielectric multilayer reflector for a microcavity surface emitting laser. Some etching characteristics of dielectric materials (Si, SiO2 and TiO2) with CF4 gas have been investigated using RIE. A 7-pair SiO2/TiO2 circular multilayer reflector with a diameter of 5 µm is successfully fabricated. In addition, the induced damage of the GaAs wafer was evaluated by PL measurement.