Follow up of SEM of etched samples

The sample which was etched with the "diving board" structure masking part of the sample was viewed using SEM today.  First, using a top down view to look at the effect of the 5 min of etching on the spheres, it could be seen that the spheres had deformed and melted together in some areas.  It was not possible to tell about the depth of etching from this angle, so the sample was placed in an ultra-sonic methanol bath for 2 intervals of 5 minutes and cleaved down the middle. When viewing the sample on its edge we were able to view what had happened in different areas of the sample from the masking and etching areas.  In the ares that were not masked there was only a rough surface, nothing that would suggest spheres were ever attached to the surface at all.  There were areas that appeared noticeably higher than others though, suggesting that multi-layers may have masked those areas slightly.  As one viewed closer to the diving board masked area the surface because less rough and more uniformly etched until up near the top of the sample there were very small misshapen pillar formations.  These pillars are not flat enough for our purposes, but they do tell us that pillars were forming and that the polystyrene spheres did create pillar structures.  The length of etching will need to become shorter in order to tell if we will be able to create pillars with a flat enough surface that they can be used for our surfactant adsorption experiments.  Therefore the next step will be to try another round of etching with a shorter interval and view the results.  Right now we have been using one interval of etching, but I am wondering if having the a greater number of intervals that equal the same time might not serve our purposes better.  By increasing the interval number the heat that was generated and melted the spheres may be reduced.  So conclusions from today are that this method did create pillars, but that we need to see if shortening the etching time and/or increasing the etching intervals will provide a cleaner result.