Evaluation of the chemical and optical perturbations induced by Ar plasma on InP surface

Abstract

Interfaces are of primary importance in heterostructures. The authors propose here an innovative methodologic development to access the chemical information in depth and, especially, at buried interfaces. This specific approach is based on the combination of glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES) plasma profiling, enabling one to quickly and precisely reach buried interfaces, with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy surface analyses, bringing an accurate determination of the composition and the chemical environments. The representativeness of the crater chemistry is, therefore, a critical issue. On the InP substrate, the fine examination inside the GD-OES crater reveals surface modifications, chemical, morphological, and optical, and, as a consequence, the need to regenerate the initial chemical information. The authors present here a study dedicated to the evaluation of those modifications thanks to a multitechnique approach, with an important contribution of spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. A crater regeneration strategy, by means of a nanochemical etching, is proposed and also assessed by the same analytical pathway, proving the recovery of the initial InP properties.