Improved surface quality of anisotropically etched silicon {111} planes for mm-scale integrated optics

Abstract

We have studied the surface quality of millimeter-scale optical mirrors produced by etching CZ and FZ silicon wafers in potassium hydroxide to expose the $\{111\}$ planes. We find that the FZ surfaces have four times lower noise power at spatial frequencies up to $500\, {mm}^{-1}$. We conclude that mirrors made using FZ wafers have higher optical quality.