applications. Efficient guiding and confinement of single-mode light in these waveguides
require high aspect ratio geometries. In these conditions, sidewall verticality becomes
crucial. We fabricated such structures using a top-down process combining electron beam
lithography and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching of hard masks and GaAs/AlGaAs
semiconductors with Al concentrations varying from 0 to 100%. The GaAs/AlGaAs plasma …