Medusa 84 SiH, an alternative HSQ resist for realizing DFB lasers diodes

Distributed feedback (DFB) lasers are attractive for communication, atomic clocks and spectroscopy applications. DFB laser diodes are compact and easy to handle. Edge emitting DFB laser diodes were initially fabricated and characterized using hydrogen silesequioxane (HSQ) electron beam resist. HSQ resist is expensive and has a low shelf life. In addition, HSQ resist also utilizes a harmful solvent - methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK). To overcome the shortcomings of HSQ resist an alternative hydrogen silsesquioxane polymer based MEDUSA 84 SiH by Allresist GmbH (Germany) was tested. In this work frame, edge emitting DFB lasers were fabricated with Medusa 84 SiH resist and were characterized. From the laser output performance it was seen that Medusa 84 SiH is an equivalent replacement for similar HSQ variants resist without compromising in the quality of the DFB laser performance.