Patterning of Sol-Gel Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Film Doped with Luminescent Semiconductor Quantum Dots

Two different sol-gel hybrid organic-inorganic films doped with luminescent CdS or PbS quantum dots (QDs) have been successfully synthesized and patterned using nanolithographic techniques. The feasibility of applying X-ray lithography and RIE to pattern hybrid materials doped with highly luminescent nanoparticles has been demonstrated for GPTMS-GeO2 (G-GeO2) and MPTMS-ZrO2 (M-ZrO2) hybrids obtained form 3-glycidoxypropyltrymethoxysilane (GPTMS), methacryloxy-propil-trimethoxysilane (MPTMS), germanium ethoxide and zirconium propoxide. Semiconductor doped film have been obtained by mixing ZrO2-SiO2 or GeO2-SiO2 sol-gel hybrid organic-inorganic matrix solution with CdS or PbS colloidal doping solution to obtain up to 20% molar concentration of QDs inside the films. Patterns consisting of pillars with different aspect ratio have been obtained by X-ray lithography and reactive ion etching (RIE). Structural and optical characterization of films before and after the lithographic process pointed out that both matrices and QDs retain their original properties without been affected by X-rays irradiation and RIE in the conditions here described.