Reactive ion etching of InP with Br2-containing gases to produce smooth, vertical walls: Fabrication of etched-faceted lasers

Abstract

We describe the reactive ion etching of InP using a mixture of Br2 and either N2 or Ar. We report the first fabrication of straight vertical walls in InP at a very fast etching rate of 2 μm/min. By using a mixture of Br2 and Ar and raising the substrate temperature, smooth walls are obtained. To demonstrate that the etched walls can be used as laser mirrors, we fabricated etched-faceted lasers with threshold currents of 19.0 mA for a laser with one etched and one cleaved facet and 26.6 mA for a laser with two etched facets.