Tungsten as a CMOS compatible catalyst for the Metal-assisted Chemical Etching of silicon to create 2D and 3D nanostructures

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the use of tungsten as a viable, low cost catalyst for Metal-assisted Chemical Etching (MaCE) of silicon to create high aspect ratio nanostructures in silicon. The effect of etchant composition and etching time is reported along with Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) images confirming that tungsten acted as a catalyst for MaCE.