Fabrication of sub-100 nm patterns in SiO2 templates by electron-beam lithography for the growth of periodic III–V semiconductor nanostructures

We report on the fabrication process of SiO 2 templates with periodic sub-100 nm patterns by electron-beam (e-beam) lithography followed by reactive ion etching. One-dimensional and two-dimensional periodic patterns were defined in 350 nm polymethylmethacrylate resist by e-beam lithography, and then transferred into 100 nm SiO 2 layers which were coated on GaAs or GaN/sapphire substrate. Patterns including line arrays and square/hexagonal hole arrays were obtained in the SiO 2 layers with sizes ranging from 100 nm to 52 nm in width or diameter. A pattern size deviation of less than 4% in a hole array of 100 µm by 100 µm was achieved. The patterned SiO 2 layers can serve as templates for the growth of periodic III–V semiconductor nanostructures. In this work, periodic InGaN nanowires and nanodots with high optical quality have been fabricated successfully by using the SiO 2 templates on GaN/sapphire.