Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 11, Issue 19, Pages 17968-17978Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b02079
Keywords
atomic layer etching; compound semiconductors; GaAs/AlGaAs nanoheterostructures; photoluminescence; digital photocorrosion
Funding
- Canada Research Chair in Quantum Semiconductors Program [950-220304]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN-2015-04448, SPG-2016-494057]
- NSERC-CREATE Training Program in Integrated Sensor Systems
- CMC Microsystems (Kingston, Canada)
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Photo-atomic layer etching (photo-ALE) of GaAs and AlGaAs semiconductors was investigated in deionized H2O and aqueous solution of NH4OH under weak excitation conditions (P approximate to 20 mW/cm(2)). The process is based on digital photocorrosion in a processed solution and a negligible corrosion during the light-off phase employed for dissolution of the photocorrosion products. An inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) analysis revealed photo-ALE of GaAs in an aqueous solution of NH4OH proceeds linearly with the number of reaction cycles, typically at similar to 0.1 nm/cycle, and with the light-off phase as short as 22 s sufficient to entirely dissolve the photocorrosion products generated during a 3 s irradiation. In agreement with the ICP-MS data, the constant photo-ALE rates in NH4OH were also demonstrated in situ with the photoluminescence measurements. Our results suggest that the congruent decomposition of III-V materials and the etching of deep structures with atomic layer resolution could be facilitated by switching in situ between different etching environments.
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