Light-absorbing materials
AssigneeBell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
InventorsHarold G. Craighead, Richard E. Howard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Materials have been made that exhibit high absorption in the visible, near ultraviolet, and near infrared spectral region while simultaneously exhibiting low absorptivity in the thermal infrared. Exemplary of such materials is silicon which is etched in a reactive sputtering process in the presence of a sputterable material. Other materials exhibiting useful properties are produced by this method.
Claims24
A body with a channeled portion comprising a material forming said body that contains a multiplicity of open voids where the mean depth of said voids is at least 0.3 .mu.m, where 20 to 80 percent of the volume of said channeled portion measured to said mean depth consists of voids, where the channel dimension of said voids is less than 3 .mu.m and where the wall direction over 75 percent of the wall length within any localized area defined by a square 10 .mu.m on side is within 20 degrees of the mean direction for said walls within said localized area.
A process for fabrication of a body having voids comprising the steps of bringing a material into close proximity to a sputterable composition such that at least a portion of said sputterable composition is exposed, and sputtering from said sputterable composition to form in situ a mask on said material while anisotropically etching said material.
A product formed by the process comprising the steps of bringing a material into close proximity to a sputterable composition such that at least a portion of said sputterable composition is exposed, and sputtering from said sputterable composition to form in situ a mask on said material while anisotropically etching said material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.