Ultralow damage depth by electron cyclotron resonance plasma etching of GaAs/InGaAs quantum wells

Abstract

Dry etch induced damage of GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) argon discharge has been investigated as a function of additional radio frequency self-biasing of the sample and process pressure in argon ECR discharges. We used depth resolved photoluminescence measurements to determine the influence of the etch process on the samples. We observe a decreasing damage depth for smaller bias voltages reaching its lowest value of 1.7 nm at 20 V bias and a pressure of 0.15 Pa. For lower pressures we observe a strong increase of the damage, which is attributed predominantly to high energetic vacuum ultraviolet radiation from the ECR region.