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3-D image of the height profile of the University of Illinois logo etched in gallium-arsenide.
This is a false color 3-D image that represents the height profile of the University of Illinois logo etched onto the surface of a gallium-arsenide semiconductor substrate. The image was captured in situ during wet etching using epi-illumination diffraction phase microscopy (epi-DPM) with a laser source. A 5x objective was used and provided a 320 micron by 240 micron field of view. The total etch depth, i.e. the height difference between the orange and purple regions, was approximately 250 nanometers after the 45 second etch. The diagonal line in the lower left corner may be a scratch in the sample.
Credit: Chris Edwards, Amir Arbabi, Gabriel Popescu, and Lynford Goddard, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
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Related story: Semiconductor Etch Without the Sketch