Electron-beam-assisted dry etching for GaAs using electron cyclotron resonance plasma electron source

Abstract

Electron-beam (EB)-assisted dry etching of GaAs using Ar electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma as an electron shower source is developed to achieve a low energy and high current density electron beam (EB). The rate of EB-assisted dry etching is more than ten times larger than for Cl2 gas etching.It is confirmed, through photoluminescence measurement, that this etching method causes less damage than ion beam techniques and is very effective for damaged layer removal. Using this technique, a 0.4 μm linewidth low-damage fine structure of GaAs was fabricated.