Methane-hydrogen III-V metal-organic reactive ion etching

Abstract

A CH4/H2 gas mixture has been used for reactive ion etching of GaAs, GaP, GaSb, InP and GaInAsP in an effort to achieve slow, smooth, anisotropic mesa etching of micrometre to submicrometre structures without causing considerable surface damage or stoichiometric modifications to the etched compounds. Parametric effects have been studied to try to understand the etching mechanism.