Fabrication of photonic nanostructures from hexagonal boron nitride

TL;DR

This paper presents a hybrid nanofabrication method combining EBIE and RIE to create high-quality photonic devices from hexagonal boron nitride, advancing quantum photonics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid etching process for hBN nanostructures, improving device quality and fabrication precision for quantum photonics.

Findings

Successful fabrication of nanoscale hBN photonic devices

High-quality optical cavity modes with Q~1500 achieved

Hybrid etching process offers advantages over traditional methods

Abstract

Growing interest in devices based on layered van der Waals (vdW) materials is motivating the development of new nanofabrication methods. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is one of the most promising materials for studies of quantum photonics and polaritonics. Here, we report in detail on a promising nanofabrication processes used to fabricate several hBN photonic devices using a hybrid electron beam induced etching (EBIE) and reactive ion etching (RIE) technique. We highlight the shortcomings and benefits of RIE and EBIE and demonstrate the utility of the hybrid approach for the fabrication of suspended and supported device structures with nanoscale features and highly vertical sidewalls. Functionality of the fabricated devices is proven by measurements of high quality cavity optical modes (Q~1500). Our nanofabrication approach constitutes an advance towards an integrated, monolithic quantum photonics platform based on hBN and other layered vdW materials.