Dewetting of resist/metal bilayers in resist stripping processes

We report the observations of dewetting of resist/metal bilayers in a resis t stripping process of nanofabrication in O-2 plasma. The initiation of the dewetting process is tentatively associated with local heating caused by s urface plasmon induced in metallic nanoparticles or nanowires. The surface patterns thus formed differ substantially from all the dewetting patterns r eported so far, and they resemble trees at micrometer scale. The possible m echanism for the formation of this kind striking patterns is discussed and its implication to future nanoelectronics manufacturing is addressed. (C) 2 001 American Institute of Physics.