The pores end in a flat bottom, albeit with some positive tapering, though less than with the initial etch process in Figure . Figure shows the effects of t i being reduced to 1.5 s, resulting in an uneven etch with branching and pore tip splitting. These branches and splits form at various points along the pore, some starting at the top and others starting further down. Due to the nature of cleaving and SEM as an analytical technique, further analysis would be required to pinpoint where exactly all splits form, but this is beyond the scope of this current work. The shorter t i = 1.5 s is too short to remove the fluorocarbon from the bottom of the pores, resulting in an uneven etch.