Ultra-smooth dry etching of GaAs using a hydrogen plasma pretreatment

Technical Report · Fri Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10115207· OSTI ID:10115207

Shul, R J; Choquette, K D; Howard, A J; Rieger, D J; DiRubio, C A ^[1]; Freund, R S; Wetzel, R C ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. AT & T Bell Labs., Murray Hill, NJ (United States)

The authors have attained extremely smooth etched surfaces on GaAs using a hydrogen plasma pretreatment before etching. The resultant morphology exhibits smooth surfaces since the etching proceeds uniformly through the GaAs without micromasking effects arising from a nonuniform surface oxide. They report the effects of hydrogen plasma treatments before RIE of GaAs in two different reactors using a SiCl{sub 4} plasma. Optimization of H{sub 2} plasma pretreatments has produced improvements in RMS roughness greater than 1 order of magnitude (22.4 to 1.51 nm).

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 10115207
• Report Number(s): SAND-93-1501C; CONF-931108-41; ON: DE94005246; BR: GB0103012; TRN: AHC29403%%61
• Resource Relation: Conference: Fall meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS),Boston, MA (United States),29 Nov - 3 Dec 1993; Other Information: PBD: [1993]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
ETCHING
SURFACE TREATMENTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
OXIDES
REMOVAL
MICROSCOPY
CHEMICAL REACTORS
360601
PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE