Quantitative Fabrication-Error Reduction in Optomechanical Crystal using Proximity Error Correction

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of proximity effect correction (PEC) in electron beam lithography (EBL) to improve the fabrication fidelity of dense photonic crystal structures. Monte Carlo simulations were employed to model electron scattering and determine the proximity function of the resist-substrate system. Based on this, a computational dose-modification scheme was implemented to compensate for nonuniform energy deposition during exposure. In addition, SEM-based image analysis was performed to quantitatively assess structural differences among uniformly exposed, manually dose-modified, and PEC-fabricated devices by comparing extracted geometries with the reference GDS design. The analysis revealed reduced dimensional deviation, improved spatial uniformity, and lower edge roughness in the PEC-corrected structures. These improvements resulted in a significantly enhanced optical quality factor in the fabricated photonic crystal cavities.

14 Pages, 5 figures (Supplementary Information: 8 Pages, 5 figures)