Patterning and hardening of Gold Black infrared absorber by shadow mask deposition with Ethyl Cyanoacrylate

摘要

Patterning of gold-black infrared absorbing films by stencil lithography and hardening by polymer infusion is reported. Gold black nano-structured films are deposited through a thin metal shadow mask in a thermal evaporator in ～400 mTorr pressure of inert gas, followed by ethyl cyanoacrylate fuming through the same mask to produce rugged IR absorptive patterns of ～100 micron scale dimensions. Infrared absorptivity is determined by transmission and reflectivity measurements using a Fourier spectrometer and infrared microscope. Results indicate that the optimized hardening process reduces the usual degradation of the absorptivity with age. This work has potential application to infrared array bolometers.